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COPTOIGHT DEPOSm 



JIM AND PEGGY 
AT MEADOWBROOK FARM 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA ■ SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



FARM READER SERIES 

FARM LIFE 



Jim and Peggy 
at Meadowbrook Farm 



BY 
WALTER COLLINS O'KANE 



WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1917 

^■ill rights reser-vtd 



3^ 



Copyright, 1917 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 

Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1917 



JAN 18 1917 



©CI.A453701 
^ "1^^ [ X 



PREFACE 

To convey a true picture of an everyday farm — its 
work, its play, the things that make up its ordinary 
life — is the purpose of this book. 

Primarily it is written for children who are not living, 
in the country. Its plan is to describe the fundamen- 
tals of farm life in terms that any city child will under- 
stand. That children who have at some time shared 
in country life, either in brief visits or in longer resi- 
dence, may find the volume equally interesting, because 
of renewed acquaintance, seems more than possible. 

The manner of presentation chosen is that of the 
story. This has been done for two reasons : partly 
because of the intrinsic appeal of a narrative and its 
aid in awakening and holding interest ; partly to secure 
the desirable means thereby afforded of bringing out 
in unobtrusive and incidental fashion the numerous 
truths that the book must tell. While there are many 
pages of fact in the volume, it is hoped that no para- 
graph may appear to the reader oppressively didactic. 

The subject matter emphasizes the fundamentals of 
farm life : what the rain, the sun, roads, fields, distance, 
fences, neighbors mean in the country. These things 



vi PREFACE 

have, in truth, unguessed values on the farm, as com- 
pared with their usual part in city Hfe. 

Consider water supply. To the city child water 
means, usually, the turning of a faucet. In the coun- 
try .f* Think of all that water means there — springs, 
wells, pumps, windmills, gasoline engines, pipes, 
tanks ; and following these a train of closely related 
topics, from the weather to fire protection. 

Sunshine and fair weather. Sources of pleasure, 
indeed, in the city. But on a farm ? There, fre- 
quently, the whole plan of work and play, the entire 
ordering of a week's program, must turn on this 
elemental essential. 

An earnest endeavor has been made to describe 
graphically and simply the typical major duties of the 
ordinary, farm — plowing and harrowing, seeding, culti- 
vating, the care of live stock, haymaking, milking, 
butter making, the fuel supply, harvesting, the way in 
which a general farm provides its table supplies and 
the manner in which these are stored for winter use. 

Thought and space have been given, also, to the 
more personal, intimate things that come most closely 
home to the daily life of farm children — the chores, 
both those that the boy is heir to and those that fall 
to the lot of the girl ; the playtimes and pleasures that 
children of a farm enjoy ; the country school. The 
story takes its characters through the round of the 
seasons, from fall to summer, touching the typical 
activities of each. 



PREFACE vii 

An Outline for Teachers 

The questions sometimes printed at the close of each 
chapter in supplementary readers have been omitted 
from this volume. In place of these a separate book- 
let has been prepared for the teacher's use. 

In this booklet are included suggestions for further 
discussion on the part of teacher or pupil, and topics 
that the pupil may look up. 

The booklet is available to any who wish to use it 
in connection with this book. 

Acknowledgments 

The author is indebted to Dr. A. E. Richards for 
helpful reading and criticism of manuscript. 

Most of the illustrations are original. For other 
photographs acknowledgments are due Mr. Bernard 
Raymund, Miss Flora McCoy, and the International 
Harvester Company. 

To those who in this book have become certain 
principal characters, especially to Jim^ and Peggy, and 
to Jane, the author acknowledges his grateful debt of 
obligation for their unfailing inspiration and their 
patient help. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Chapter I. The Road from Milford i 

The level stretch — A turnout — Four corners — The sign- 
boards — Old Joe — Down the hill — Across the meadow — 
The farm. 

Chapter II. Jim and Peggy 7 

Horace and Jane — The colts — Brownie and Jerry — 
Where Jim and Peggy live — Belinda — Living in the city — 
Turkeys and ducks. 

Chapter III. Uncle David's Plan 14 

To see what a farm is like — What Horace and Jane are to 
do — Harnessing Dan and Ben — The letter — Jim and Peggy 
arrive — The drive home. 

Chapter IV. The First Morning 21 

Jim wakes up late — Out to the back field — Plowed ground 

— How tlie riding plow worked — The cutaway harrow — A 
walking plow. 

Chapter V. The Pigs and Susan 28 

The little pigs — Carrots — The big pig — Spot and Tag — 
The brown and white calf — Feeding Susan. 

Chapter VI. Apples 34 

The Grimes tree — Which to eat — Filling barrels — Gath- 
ering fallen fruit — Rabbit guards — A tree propped up — 
The basin of hot water. 

Chapter VII. Eli and Aaron 41 

Up early — Feeding sugar to Billy and Queen — The steers 

— Jim climbs up on Eli's back — Two mallard ducks. 



CONTENrS 



PAGE 



Chapter VIII. Chores 47 

In the barn — The haymow — Horse stalls — The grain 
barrels — Feeding Dan. Ben, and Milly — Where the cows are 
kept — Skim milk and ground feed for the pigs. 

Chapter IX. Peggy's Pies 53 

The breakfast dishes — Washing napkins — Getting the 
pumpkin ready — Making piecrust — Lining the pans — The 
filling — Baking. 

Chapter X. Corn . -58 

The knives — A new silo — What is ensilage ? — The ensi- 
lage cutter — Harvesting ensilage corn — Cutting ear corn — 
Making the shocks — The squirrel's breakfast table. 

Chapter XI. Milk and Cream 66 

The milk pail — How Uncle David milked — What Belinda 
did — Milk for Peter — The spring box — Where the milk 
goes — The separator — Cream in one can, skim milk in the 
other. 

Chapter XII. How Aunt Lucy Made Butter ... 73 
A rainy morning — Jim and Horace — How the cream was 
churned — Washing out the buttermilk — The butter worker 

— Working in the salt — Making the prints. 

Chapter XIII. In the Barn 79 

Shooting with the sling shots — Corn for ammunition — 
Feeding turkeys — Surprising Peter — The corn rhyme — 
Driving Eli and Aaron — Digging bait. 

Chapter XIV. The Fishing Trip 85 

Getting hooks and lines ready — Through a back pasture 

— Chased down a hill — Barbed wire — The old mill — 
Shiners — The new place — Back home. 

Chapter XV. On the Way to Freeport .... 93 
The peddler's wagon — Drilling a well — Gasoline pump — 
Windmill — Each farm must have its own water supply — 
What the weather means — A round barn — The meat wagon 

— A jrood farm. 



CONTENTS xi 

PAGE 

Chapter XVI. The Woodpile loo 

Uncle David's customers — A load of coidwood — Where 
the cordwood came from — A bucksaw — Why wood is used 

— A gasoline engine saw. 

Chapter XVII. The Drive Home io6 

Old Tom's tool box — Fitting a shoe — Inside the shop — 
The forge — Lunch — The well — A bucket on a chain — The 
big water tank — Fire protection on a farm. 

Chapter XVIII. A Visit to the Reynolds Farm . -113 
Work finished early — Milkweed seeds for letters — Sumac 
and wild asters — Andy's cow — Sammy's chickens — The 
colt — -Moses the drake — Goldenrod. 

Chapter XIX. Sunday Morning 120 

The spring — How the brook pumped the water to the 
house — Andy and Milly — Jim on Milly's back — Where the 
horses were hitched. 

Chapter XX. Good Roads and Back Roads . . .126 
Last day before school — The mail box — How the mail 
comes to the farm — A graveled road — The county line — 
The washed-out hill — The soap kettles — Sand — The grassy 
road — Mud. 

Chapter XXI. School 134 

Spot and the boys — Only one room — Play — The inside 
of the schoolroom — Recitations — Few in each grade — The 
stick with three prongs — A rainstorm — Muddy roads and 
wet grass. 

Chapter XXII. Winter Supplies 141 

Jim and Peggy cut across through the woods — Digging 
potatoes — The root cellar — How the vegetables were stored 

— Squashes — Bean vines — Threshing out the beans — 
What a farm buys and what it raises. 



xil CONTENTS 



PAGE 



Chapter XXIII. Woodchucks and Corn . . . .148 
The "chucks" and Spot — Fresh holes — Andy husking 
corn — Horace and Jim help — Where the corn was stored 
— The letter from home — Peggy and Jim go back to the city- 

Chapter XXIV. The Road in Winter . . . • IS5 
Plans for a winter visit — Snow — Runners on the wagon — 
Jim and Peggy arrive — The village street — A snowplow — 
Over the hill. 

Chapter XXV. A Winter Morning 160 

The snow blanket — Paths — The barn — The cows — 
Gathering eggs — Not many now — Rabbit tracks — Along 
the brook — Spot and the pile of rocks. 

Chapter XXVI. The Ice Harvest 167 

Where the ice was cut — The rows of squares — Sawing — 
Breaking off the long row — Loading cakes into a sled — 
Building a fire — Why each one helps at the work — Back to 
the city. 

Chapter XXVII. Spring i73 

In the fields — Birds — Speckle — Cows out again — Plow- 
ing the garden — Jane's flowers — Busy days — Getting after 
the weeds. 

Chapter XXVIII. Planting -Time 178 

Rainstorms and plowing — Harrowing — The spike tooth 
— Clods in a wet place — A plank drag — Planting corn — 
The drill — Rolling after seeding. 

Chapter XXIX. Uncle John and Jim 184 

School closed — Plans for the spring visit — Jim and Peggy 
arrive with Uncle John and Aunt Emily — Looking the farm 
over — The horses — A new Holstein — Clover. 

Chapter XXX. Across the Fields . • . . .190 
A set of bars — Uncle John's old home — Stump fences — 
Putting up a wire fence — Gates — Down to the old dam. 



CONTENTS xiii 



PAGE 



Chapter XXXI. Aunt Emily and Peggy .... 196 
Hunting up the farm pets — How pigs grow — Houses for 
little chicks — Hiram performs — The calves — Fresh vege- 
tables — Aunt Lucy asks Peggy. 

Chapter XXXII. Old and New . . . . . . 203 

A new kind of light — How the gas was made — Electric 
lighting outfits — The lantern and the oil lamps — Improve- 
ments — Harvesting time — Uncle John asks Jim. 

Chapter XXXIII. Haymaking 210 

The mowing machine — How the grass was cut — Uncle 
John and Aunt Emily come back from a walk — Another trip 
to Freeport — The overhead carrier — A hay baler. 

Chapter XXXIV. The Farm 217 

The hay tedder at work — The hayrack — Raking — Cock- 
ing up — Loading the rack — Into the barn — The trip up 
the hill — The new farm. 



JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOW- 
BROOK FARM 



CHAPTER I 

THE ROAD FROM MILFORD 

If you drive out of the village of Milford by the 
road that goes by Old Tom's blacksmith shop, you 




Becky and Her Colt Come to the Fence to Watch You 

come right away to the top of a steep little hill. 
It's only a short way down, but big Dan has to 



2 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



hold back tight in the harness, walking sort o' 

sidewise, to keep the wagon from running over him. 

Just at the bottom the road divides. You'll 

need to remember there to take the left-hand fork, 

if you're going 
with us. 

For a long 
while, then, you 
jog along on a 
level road, with 
wide fields on 
each side 
stretching away 
almost as far 
as you can see. 
In summer it's 
often hot there 
and the dust 
rises beneath 
the horses' feet, 
giving the wagon, and you, too, a coat of white. 
In winter the frosty wind swoops down and tries 
to nip your nose and your ears. Over on the 
right, in one of the fields, George Turner's bay 
mare Becky and her new colt come galloping to 
the fence. Becky stands with her ears pointed 
forward, watching you and Old Dan and the 
wagon. But the funny colt is not sure about 
you and sticks close to his mother. 




A Turnout Leads Down Through the Water 



THE ROAD FROM MILFORD 



After a little, a brook crosses under the road. 
A turnout leads down through the water and back 
to the highway again, so that you can drive into 
the brook and wash some of the dirt from the 
wheels. 

When you've passed five or six farmhouses 
you come to a cross- 
roads, where one way 
leads square to the 
left, another square 
to the right, and 
the road you're on 
goes straight ahead. 
There isn't any sign- 
board there. But 
you'll know the place 
because there'll be 
a dog-house in the 
farmyard at the 
corner ; and Benny 
Wheeler's sleepy, 
good-natured old 
Champ will be sure 
to come slowly out to wag his stubby tail at you. 

You'll take the road to the right. By and by 
it will lead you under some big trees and across 
a little bridge over another brook — only it's 
not really another but is the same one that 
you saw before at the turnout. There's a marshy 




Old Champ Comes out to Greet You 



4 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



spot close to the bridge, and often, in summer, 
cows stand there in the cool water, turning their 
heads slowly to watch you go by. In the evening 

big, old bullfrogs boom 
away among the water- 
weeds. 

You drive on, up a 
gentle slope, and after 
a time come out at 
another corner where 
there are four high- 
ways spreading out 
ahead of you, each 
leading in a different 
direction. There's a 
signpost at the corner, 
with white-painted 
boards pointing criss- 
cross up here and down 
there ; and close by is 
a schoolhouse, with a 
flag-pole in front. One 
of the signboards says 
"Sawyer Mills" and points to a road that swings 
round the side of the schoolhouse and climbs a hill 
a little farther on. That is the road you'll take. 

You can be sure you're on the right way because 
soon you'll pass a farm with a high board fence 
between you and the barn. If you shout or 




There's a Sign-post at the Corner 



THE ROAD FROM MILFORD 



whistle, you'll more than likely see a pair of short 
horns and a big head and a black nose with a ring 
in it come up over the top board, and perhaps 
old Joe will rumble 
at you. 

It's a pretty good 
climb to the top of 
the hill, though it's 
not steep except at 
the very last. But 
just as soon as you 
reach the top, down 
goes the road again, 
curving away to the 
left, and then to the 
right, with bushes 
and woods on each 
side of it, so that 
you can see only a little of what is coming. 

After a time you can see a wooden bridge ahead 
of you, around a bend. Big Dan holds back all 
he can, for the road is steep and there are loose 
stones in it where the rain has washed down. In 
a moment the wagon rattles on the planks of the 
bridge. All at once you look across a meadow 
to the right, and see a white farmhouse on a knoll, 
beneath big, spreading trees, with a lane leading 
up to it from your road. 

Old Dan begins to hurry. A black and white 




You'll See Joe Looking Over the 
Top Board 



6 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

dog hears you cross the bridge, catches sight of 
Dan, and comes tearing across the field. Some 
one in a white apron comes out on the porch of 
the house. A boy and a girl race down the lane 
to meet you. 

You have come to Meadowbrook Farm. 




Down Goes the Road to the Bridge 



CHAPTER II 
JIM AND PEGGY 

Uncle David North pushed back his chair from 
the breakfast table and looked across at his son 
Horace. 

"Horace," he said, "how old are you?" 

Uncle David was always asking that. Horace 
grinned. 

"You know, dad," he said. 

"What is it, — ten.?" 

"No, twelve." 

Horace's sister, Jane, came in from the summer 
kitchen. 

"Then Jane must be twelve, too," said Uncle 
David, as if to himself. 

"Daddy, you know I'm thirteen," put in Jane. 

Uncle David looked at the children's mother. 
Aunt Lucy, who was busy at the stove and had her 
back to them. 

"Do you think you youngsters could show two 
visitors over Meadowbrook Farm ? — Now wait. 
I mean really show them all about the place, so 
that they'd know just how we live here." 

Aunt Lucy turned to look at him wonderingly. 

7 



8 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

Horace and Jane slowly nodded their heads, 
wondering, too. 

*'All right," said Uncle David, "skip out, both 
of you and look after the colts and chickens, while 
I talk with your mother." 

When they had gone Uncle David walked over 
and stood by a window. 




The Colts Camh Back to the (Jate to Watch Horace 



Out in the yard Horace led the colts out of the 
barn, opened the gate to the pasture lane, and 
turned them loose on the other side. For a mo- 
ment they danced around, first on their hind feet 
with their front legs up, then on their front feet 
with their hind legs up. Horace latched the gate 
and walked away. At once they came and looked 



JIM AND PEGGY 



over, to watch him. Jane stopped to pet Peter the 
cat, and then heard Brownie and Jerry, the duck 
and drake, quacking for her, and went over to let 
them out of their coop for the day. 

Aunt Lucy left her work at the stove and sat 
down at the deserted 
table. 

"What is it 
about the visitors. 
Father .?" she said. 

"Well, Mother, 
it's about Jim and 
Peggy Harlow : you 
know — John and 
Emily Harlow's 
children." 

"You mean your 
cousin John, in the 
city .^" 

"Yes, — though 
he's not really a 
cousin. But he and 
I played together 
when we were kids. I think he was nine or ten 
when his dad moved to the city to live. He's 
never been back." 

"Does he want to come to see us V 

"No, that isn't it. He's sick and couldn't 
come. In fact he must go to a hospital, if he and 




Jane Stopped to Pet Peter 



lo JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



his wife can find a way of caring for the children 
for a Httle. Aunt Sue telephoned about it this 
morning. It's the children, Jim and Peggy, I 
was thinking about. They're just a little younger 

than our children. 
They've never been 
out ot the city." 

"Are they sick, too, 
David.?" • 

*'No, not as I un- 
derstand it. But 
they've never had 
anything but city" — 
A shout, '*Hie, 
there," sounded from 
outdoors, and Horace 
came into view rac- 
ing down across the 
meadow to the foot- 
bridge nearthe spring. 
Beyond the brook, Belinda, the new Jersey cow, 
had found a hole somewhere in the fence, and was 
getting ready to eat up the turnip patch. Jane 
heard Horace shout and came running to help. 
Together they tried to make Belinda go back 
through the hole. But she wouldn't look at it, and 
only galloped up and down the fence, first this 
way and then that. Finally Horace let down the 
bars where the pasture fence comes up near the 




Horace Raced Across the Foot- 
bridge 



JIM AND PEGGY 



II 



end of the cart-bridge over the brook, and he and 
Jane persuaded foohsh Behnda to go through. 
They fixed up the hole where she had found her 
way out, and came back to the farmyard. 

On the way they decided that Tony, the spotted 
calf, needed fresh grass to graze upon. So they 
pulled up the stake that Tony's rope was tied to, 
led him over to a new place near the old windmill, 




ELiNDA Was in the Ti'RNip Patch 



and pounded the stake into the ground with a 
stone. Then they stopped to talk to him, and 
watch him wiggle his ears. 

"It's this way," continued Uncle David. "For 
years, you know, John and Emily have thought of 
coming back to the country. But they've got so 
far away from it that it seems a big thing to under- 
take. And then they've a notion that the children, 
Jim and Peggy, might not be contented or get 



12 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

along all right. Aunt Sue says that Emily Harlow 
wrote her that they'd pack up and move to-morrow 
if they were sure about the youngsters. " 
Aunt Lucy nodded. 

"So you thought we might give the children a 

taste of it here 
at Meadow- 
brook, and see 
how they like 
it V she said. 
Then she added 
"That would 
mean that they 
would decide 
the whole mat- 
ter, wouldn't 
it?" 

"Yes, I guess 
that's about 
it," said Uncle 
David. 

They Watched Tony Wiggle His Ears Throilp-h the 

window they watched Jane come out of the barn 
door carrying a bucket of grain. She stopped 
to speak to old Speckle and her little chicks in 
their wire cage. Then she walked over toward 
the wagon shed, to call big Gobbo, the turkey 
gobbler, and his flock. In a moment five or 
six of the turkeys were around her, while Gobbo 




JIM AND PEGGY 



13 



spread his tail 
feathers and 
marched back 
and forth, 
drooping his 
wings and 
making funny 
noises in his 
throat. Soon 
there was a 
quack-quack- 
ing, and half- 




Jane Called Gobbo 



a-dozen ducks came running to get a share of 
the breakfast. 

**rd be glad to have them come, David," said 
Aunt Lucy. "Shall we tell Jane and Horace all 
about it .?" 



CHAPTER III 



UNCLE DAVID'S PLAN 



"Well," said Uncle David, "my plan would be 
this. We'd want Jim and Peggy to see just what 

our life here is like. 
We don't want them 
to have all play, and 
think that there isn't 
any hard work on a 
farm, or that it's all 
sunshineor all rain. Of 
course we won't- say to 
them that their father 
and mother are going 
to let them decide 
whether to move to 
the country or not. 
Maybe that isn't so, 
anyhow. We'll just 
give them all the real 
farm life we can." 
"As for Jane and 
Horace, and the part that they can take " — 

Just then the door to the summer kitchen opened 
and Horace stuck his head in — 

14 




Andy Was at Work on the Barn 



UNCLE DAVID'S PLAN 



15 



*'Dad," he said, '*do you want Andy to paint 
the gutter pipe on the barn ?" 

"Did he want to know ?" asked Uncle David. 

"Well — no," said Horace. 

Uncle David laughed. "He knows about it," 
he said. 

Horace wanted to linger. But he couldn't 




Horace Was Banking up the Celery 



think of anything else to say, so he shut the door. 
In a moment he went by the window, dragging a 
board, to finish banking up celery in the garden. 

"I know how we'll do it," said Aunt Lucy. 
"You talk with Horace and I'll talk with Jane. 
We'll tell them that Jim and Peggy have never 
been in the country, and so they must show them 
just how it is to live on a farm. I think it will be 



i6 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

all right to say that their two visitors may some 
day go to live in the country, but they mustn't 
try to get them to like it. They must just show 
them all they can, and let them find out for them- 
selves. 

"That was my plan, too," said Uncle David. 
*'But do you suppose that it's asking too much of 
our youngsters to keep a secret like that .?" 

Aunt Lucy shook her head. 

"It will be good for them," she said. "They'll 
do it all right." 

Jane came around the corner of the house with 
a pail of water to fill the dishpan that Brownie 
and Jerry used for a bathtub. Aunt Lucy mo- 
tioned for her to come in, drew her down to a 
chair beside her, and told her about Peggy and 
Jim. Uncle David put on his hat, and walked 
down to the garden to tell Horace. 

Half an hour later Uncle David asked Horace 
to help hitch up the horses. They'd start at once 
for town with the letters to Jim and Peggy's father 
and mother. The .mail would leave Milford at 
noon, that way, and be in the city the next morn- 
ing, instead of waiting for Eben, the mail carrier, 
and his slow old horse. 

Horace put the harness on Ben and Dan, and 
led them out. They were to be hitched to the 
hayrack, for there was a tire coming loose on one 
of the wheels, and it could be set while in town. 



UNCLE DAVID'S PLAN 



17 



Ben waited while big Dan backed around to his 
place beside the wagon tongue. Then Horace 
spoke to Ben, holding, fast to his bridle, and Ben 
stepped around to the other side of the tongue. 
Uncle David fastened the trace chains, while 
Horace hooked up the rest of the harness, snapped 




Horace Hitched up Ben and Dan 



the reins in the bridle rings, and handed the loose 
ends to his father. 

At ten o'clock they were in Milford. Horace 
carried the letters into the little frame postoffice 
and handed them in through the window. 

Two days later Eben, the mail carrier, stopped 
his horse at Meadowbrook Farm mail box. Jane 



8 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



brought the letter to the house and Aunt Lucy 
read it. It said that Jim and Peggy were coming. 
They would arrive Tuesday evening — and this 
was Saturday. They could stay for perhaps two 
weeks, perhaps three or four, until Uncle John 

was back home 

again. 

Uncle David 
came in to hear 
the news. The 
last part of the 
letter said that 
the children were 
already in school, 
for it was the last 
of September. 

"Horace, when 
does your school 
start ?" Uncle 
David asked. 

"A week from 
Monday" — 
"Then we'll 
try to have them go with you and Jane, if they 
stay long enough. I think your teacher won't 
mind." 

Tuesday afternoon Uncle David hitched up 
Milly to the surrey and drove to Milford in time 
for the evening train. Aunt Lucy stayed home 




Eben Stopped at the Mail Box 



UNCLE DAVID'S PLAN 



19 



to get supper, with Jane to help her. Horace had 
to look after the chores. 

The train was late. When it arrived the sun had 
just gone down. Uncle David welcomed the two 
travelers, and stowed them away in the surrey, 
with a robe tucked 
in around" them, 
for the night was 
cool. Milly 
trotted out at her 
best pace. 

It was soon too 
dark to see much, 
except now and 
then the light in 
a farmhouse slip- 
ping by. 

Once there was 
the sound of 
horses' feet in a 
field to the right. 
As they turned a 
corner at a cross- 




Jane Led the Way with a Candle 



roads a dog barked and Uncle David said, 
"Hello, there, Champ, how are you to-night.?" 
After a time there were the dark forms of trees 
overhead, and by and by Milly slowed down to 
a walk and pulled steadily in the traces up a hill. 
Then there were woods, and Milly was holding 



20 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

back down a steep hill. In a few minutes Jim 
and Peggy heard a bridge rattle under Milly's 
hoofs, and then, almost before they knew it. Aunt 
Lucy was gathering them in her arms, while Horace 
and Jane waited to meet them. 

An hour later Jane led the way with a candle, and 
soon both children were in bed, Jim with Horace, 
Peggy with Jane. The last that Jim heard was 
Uncle David's voice talking to Andy Wiggin about 
painting the barn, and the last that Peggy knew 
was Aunt Lucy's "Better get to sleep now, girls." 




The Place whkre the Trees Arched Overhead 



CHAPTER IV 
THE FIRST MORNING 

When Jim awoke next morning it was bright 
daylight, and a brisk breeze was blowing in through 
the open window, holding the curtain straight 
out. For a minute Jim couldn't tell where he was. 
Then he remembered. He turned to look for 
Horace on the other pillow, but there was no one 
there. 

He jumped out of bed. On the back of a chair 
were hung his clothes ; rather they were not all his, 
for some one had hung there a pair of stout over-: 
alls, about his size. There was no sound except 
the noise of chickens somewhere outside. He 
looked out of the window and saw a flock of white 
hens in a yard among some fruit trees. A white 
rooster with them put back his head and crowed. 

Wondering what time it was, and afraid he 
had missed part of the fun, Jim hurried into his 
clothes. It did not take him long to get them 
on. In five minutes he scurried downstairs and 
out into the kitchen. Jane and Peggy were there, 
with Aunt Lucy ; but Uncle David and Horace 
had eaten their breakfast and gone out. Jim 



22 'JIM AND PEGGY AT ME A DOW BROOK 



made up his mind that he'd not be late another 
time. A farm was no place to get up late. There 

were too many things 
happening as soon as 
the sun came up. 

Aunt Lucy sent 
him out to wash his 
face and hands in a 
basin on a bench out- 
side the kitchen door. 
That done, he would 
have liked to hurry 
on without bothering 
about breakfast, but 
it was all ready for 
him. As he finished, 
Horace came in. 

"Have you finished 

the chores.^" asked 

Aunt Lucy. 

Horace nodded. 

"Your father's 

Maybe Jim would like 




Jim Washed his Face and Hands uui- 
siDE THE Kitchen Door 



plowing in the back field, 
to watch him." 

The two boys hustled out. They crossed the 
farmyard, passing a dozen things that Jim wished 
he could stop to look at and ask about. Climb- 
ing over a gate, they walked down a long lane, 
climbed another gate, and came, out in a field. 



THE FIRST MORNING 



23 



Beneath their feet was fresh, brown earth, 
turned up in flat rolls or waves that ran the length 
of the field. A little way beyond was a strip of 
sod like that in the lane. Along one side of this 
strip two horses were moving, hauling something 
on low, iron wheels, while a new layer of brown 




The Plow Turned up the Brown Earth 



earth turned up behind them. Uncle David was 
driving; As he saw the boys he spoke to the 
horses, checked them with the reins, and stopped. 

Horace and Jim walked across the plowed 
ground. 

It was bumpy going. Sometimes they stepped 
on top of the layers, sometimes in the hollows 



24 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

between. Their feet sank into the soft earth, 
often nearly to their shoe tops. Some of the dirt 
got into Jim's shoes. 

"Want a job, boys ?" asked Uncle David. 

"All right," said Horace. 

"Sure," said Jim. 

"I'll tell you what you do," said Uncle David. 
"See those boards and things in the grass? If 
you'll carry them over to the fence there and pile 
them up, I think that'll be your share. Watch 
out for nails." 

Horace looked at the strip of sod remaining. 

"Can't finish this before dinner, can you.^" he 
asked. 

"Oh, we'll clean it up by noon," said his father. 

Uncle David started the horses. Jim watched 
the layer of earth slide smoothly from the mold- 
board, turning over next to the open space where 
one of the wheels was running. At the end of the 
row Uncle David put his weight on a lever fastened 
beside his seat. The plow that had been doing 
the work rose in the air and stayed there. The 
horses turned and faced back for another trip. 
Uncle David let another lever come up. The plow 
on the other side, that had been riding above the 
ground, sank into the earth. A new furrow began. 
It was fun to watch. 

As Uncle David drew near them, Horace called 
to him. 



THE FIRST MORNING 25 

"Let me try it, once," he said. 

Uncle David stepped down from the iron seat. 
Horace cHmbed up, and drove the horses to the 
end of a furrow and back. 

Then Jim and Horace hunted up the boards 
and sticks, and began carrying them to the fence. 

They had finished their work, and were sitting 
on the fence watching the plow again when Uncle 
David stopped near them on one of his rounds. 



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Ihree Horsks Pulled the Cutaway Harrow 

"Boys," he said, "Mr. Reynolds has bought a 
big, new cutaway harrow. You two might go 
over and watch it work. You'll have time before 
dinner." 

So they went over a fence, through another 
field, down through a meadow, up through a 
woods, and came out at the Reynolds farm. 



26 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

Two big gray horses and a black one were pull- 
ing the cutaway. It had eight queer-shaped 
disks under it, fastened in a row. Each was made 
of steel, curved like a kind of lid, with deep notches 
cut into the edge. As the harrow moved along 
the disks kept turning in the earth ; and, as they 
turned, the soil was tossed and ground until it 
was all loose and crumbly. Mr. Reynolds rode 
on an iron seat fastened to the middle of the har- 
row. Sometimes his seat jerked around here and 
there. 

When they had watched the horses make four 
or five rounds of the field, Jim and Horace started 
down the road for home. On the way they passed 
Andy Wiggin's. Andy worked for Uncle David. 
He and Aunt Hannah Wiggin lived in a house 
near the road, on a part of Uncle David's farm. 

Andy was turning up a new garden space for 
next year. His white horse was hitched to a walk- 
ing-plow. This plow went through the ground 
much like Uncle David's, but it wasn't mounted 
on wheels and it wasn't as big. At the back of 
it were wood handles. Andy walked along, hold- 
ing to these and guiding the plow while he drove. 
The earth was turned up just as when Uncle 
David was driving the riding-plow, but the work 
was harder and slower. Sometimes Andy had to 
use all his strength to keep the plow pointed right 
in the ground. Once it hit a root or a stone and 



THE FIRST MORNING 



27 



switched up out of the earth. Holding it and 
guiding it made Andy walk with funny, uneven 







Andy Walked along Guiding the Plow 



Steps, this way and that. Jim did not like this 
plow as well as Uncle David's machine. 

They turned up the lane and saw Peggy and 
Jane on the porch, looking for them, to tell them 
that dinner was waiting. 



CHAPTER V 

THE PIGS AND SUSAN 

Horace and Jim finished dinner with a third 
glass of milk each ; and Peggy was not far behind. 
Before they left the table Horace looked across at 
his father for a moment, and then asked, "What 
are we going to do this afternoon, Dad ?" 

Uncle David suspected that Horace had a plan 
cf his own. He hesitated, for it was a fine, warm 
day and he knew where Horace would like to go 
with Jim for the afternoon. He'd like to go him- 
self. But there was real work that needed doing, 
and it couldn't very well wait. In fact there was 
more than could be done that day, or in several 
days. 

"Well, Son," he said, "I guess we'd better get 
those fall apples picked and put away." 

Out in the yard a calf mooed and a duck quacked. 

"Have you children said- 'How d'do' to all the 
stock and pets ?" asked Uncle David. 

Jim shook his head 

"I've seen Peter, and Jerry and Brownie," said 

Peggy. 

"The girls were busy helping me all morning," 

28 



THE PIGS AND SUSAN 



29 



explained Aunt Lucy, "and perhaps Jim and 
Horace were busy, too." 

"Well, I'll tell you," proposed Uncle David, 
"it will take Andy and me half an hour or so to 
fix up the apple barrels. You youngsters can 
make the rounds while we're getting them ready." 




Half a Dozen Little White Pigs Were in the Tool Shed 

That suited all of them, and they trooped out 
into the yard. 

Half a dozen little white pigs were dozing around 
the wheels of an old buggy stored away in one of 
the openings of the tool shed. They waked up 
and scampered away as they saw the children 
coming. Then they came running back again. 

"Wait a minute," said Horace. 



30 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



He ran down to the garden, pulled up four or 
five carrots, and went into the barn for a pan of 
ground feed. 

Two of the carrots he broke up for the pigs. 
They gobbled them up, chewing until their lips 
smacked. 

In a shed, beyond, was Nellie, the mother of the 
little pigs. She was standing up, hanging one 

front leg over the boards 

nailed across the door. 
They threw a carrot to 
her. She clambered 
down inside to get it, 
and at once stood up 
again, waiting for mo^"e, 
hooking her elbow over 
the top board to help 
hold her up. It didn't 
take her more than ten 
seconds to eat a carrot, 
though she chewed it 
well, too. 

"I think she'd eat 
a bushel of carrots in ten minutes," commented 
Jane. 

"Well, she won't get them," replied Horace. 
Beyond the tool shed they found Spot and his 
brother Tag. Tag lived at the Reynolds farm but 
spent much of his time at the North place, visiting. 




Nellie Was Standing at the 
Door 



THE PIGS AND SUSAN 



31 



Spot came to meet them as soon as he saw them 

coming. He had seen Jim that morning, and when 

Jim said "Hello, Spot" he walked over and stood 

quietly wagging his 

tail while Jim 

patted him on the 

back. As they 

went on, both dogs 

followed along with 

them. 

"Let's go see 
Susan," said Jane. 

Out beyond the 
chicken house, near 
some apple trees, 
they could see a 
brown and white 
calf. She was tied 
with a short rope 
to the end of a 
pole. The pole was 

hinged near one end to the top of a stake, and on 
the other end was fastened a piece of iron. If 
you pulled on the rope, the pole would tip down, 
and if you loosened the rope, up it would go 
again. 

Susan tried to run away as they came near. 
She made about three jumps, and then the rope 
stopped her with a jerk. After that she hopped 



1 13^ L J!?l'^^ 

■I, 1^1, I xm^^mjm 



Spot Stood Wagging His Tail 



32 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

back and forth, stiff-legged, as far away as the rope 
would let her go, rolling her eyes and crying *' Baa," 
as if the children were giants that were going to 
eat her up. 

Horace gave Jim the pan of chopped grain. 
Jim held it out toward her. But Susan was sus- 




JiM Held the Pan for Susan 



picious and wouldn't come. Then Jim set the 
pan on the ground and they all stood back while 
Susan came slowly up and took a taste of the 
grain. Pretty soon Jim stooped and gradually 
slipped up until he could reach out and touch the 
pan. For a moment Susan was going to be scared 
again. But the grain tasted good, and soon she 
forgot about the children and licked the pan clean 
while Jim held it for her. 



THE PIGS AND SUSAN 



33 



As they came back by the shed where they had 
been feeding carrots to NelHe, they found her still 
looking over the 
top board. 

"Let's put her 
little piggies back 
with her," sug- 
gested Jane. 

So they started 
the pigs toward 
the shed, while 
Horace held up 
the bottom board 

tor them to go The Little Pigs Crowded around Her 

through. In they 

scampered, as fast as they could run. The chil- 
dren went around to the side and looked through 
a crack. Nellie had got down from the board 
where she had been standing, and all the little 
pigs were crowding tight around her, grunting 
and squealing. 




CHAPTER VI 
APPLES 

"Can't we go down and see Eli ?" suggested Jane. 

"Who's Eli?" asked Peggy. 

"He's Horace's steer. Horace rides him and 
drives him almost anywhere." 

" I drive him only with Aaron," objected Horace. 

"Well, Aaron's his own brother, and just like 
im. 

"How about the apple picking.?" said Horace. 

For answer Jane ran over to the barn. She 
found her father and Andrew ready to begin. So 
Eli and Aaron would have to wait for another 
time. 

Uncle David asked the girls if they would 
gather the fruit beneath the Grimes tree near the 
house. He gave them a round, deep basket, and 
rolled out an empty barrel, which he put where it 
would be handy. 

Meanwhile Andy was hitching Milly to a light 
wagon. They piled this up with empty barrels. 
Horace and Jim got up on the seat with Andy, 
Uncle David hopped on behind, and they rattled 

34 



APPLES 35 

away past the chicken house, to the far end of the 
big orchard. 

There were already two ladders in neighboring 
trees, where they'd been used the week before in 
picking earlier fruit. Andy took one and Uncle 
David the other. It was the boys' job to gather 



Peggy Gathered the Apples beneath the Grimes Tree 

the fallen fruit, and to take the baskets from the 
men and empty them into the barrels. 

"When you pour apples into the barrel," said 
Uncle David, ''be careful to hold the basket down 
near the bottom inside, and turn it over slowly, so 
as not to bruise the fruit." 

He explained, also, how they would need to keep 
the fruit gathered from the ground separate from 
that picked from the trees. Besides this there 



36 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



were different kinds of apples from different trees 

to keep separate. 

While they were at the Grimes tree, Horace 

hunted up a big, sound apple ^nd began to eat it. 

Jim did tjie same. It was crisp and juicy, and 

had a fine, spicy flavor. The next kind was a deep, 

red one, at the 
tree where 
they first be- 
gan picking. 
There were 
branches on 
the tree loaded 
so full that you 
could almost 
fill a basket 
from one 
branch. Hor- 
ace didn't pick 
an apple from 
the tree but 
got one from 

the ground. Uncle David did the same, and 

found one for Jim. 

"These on the ground are mellow," he explained. 

"The ones on the tree are all right for picking and 

storing, but they're not so good yet to eat." 
Next they sampled an apple with red and yellow 

stripes. After that Jim felt that he had eaten 




The Boys Gathered the Fallen Fruit 



APPLES 



37 



enough, though Horace managed to put away 
another one. 

The boys worked steadily, gathering fruit, 
placing empty barrels, and filling them. Andy 
drove back to the barn for more barrels. Jim 
found that even an 
empty apple barrel 
feels heavier after 
you have carried it 
a few steps, and 
often the ground 
was so uneven that 
you didn't gain 
much by rolling it. 
A basket of apples, 
too, wasn't very 
light to lift and 
carry. Sometimes 
his back ached from 
stooping ove r , 
gathering fruit from 
the ground.. But 
the kink would dis- 
appear when he walked around a little. And all the 
time the barrels kept filling up. It was pleasant 
to look at them, standing about. 

Here and there in the orchard were young trees 
planted where old ones had been cut out. Around 
the trunk of each of these, next to the ground, a 




Jim Helped to Carry Empty Barrels 



38 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

piece of wire netting was fastened. He asked 
Horace about it, and learned that this was to keep 
rabbits and mice from gnawing the bark of the 
young trees and kilhng them. 

"Rabbits are bad almost any time," explained 
Horace. "The mice are worse in winter. Some- 




The Last Tree was Propped up with Boards and Poles 

times when there's snow they make tunnels under 
it to the trees." 

"Do rabbits come here into this orchard?" 
asked Jim. 

"Sure," said Horace. "Nearly every day." 

"Do you ever shoot them ?" 

"Lots of times. That is, dad does. We shoot 



APPLES 



39 



them in fall and winter. — Maybe he'll take us 
hunting while you're here." 

They worked on until the sun began to sink in 
the west. The last tree that they came to, a big 
one standing near a shed, was so loaded with 
apples that it had 
been propped up 
with boards and 
poles to keep the 
branches from 
breaking. Uncle 
David looked it 
over, but decided 
they'd leave it 
until the next 
day. 

He sent the 
boys up to the 
house, then, to 
get ready for 
supper. He and 
Andrew began 
loading the full barrels into the wagon, to haul 
them to the shelter of the tool shed for the night. 

When Aunt Lucy saw the boys coming toward 
the kitchen, she filled a basin with warm water, 
carried it outside and set it on the ground near 
the bench by the door. 

*'Slip off your shoes and stockings, Jim," she 




A Branch with Its Load of Apples 



40 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



said. "The hot water'll be good for your feet." 
She smiled and added, "Maybe a Httle soap won't 
hurt, either." A moment afterward she came 

out with clean stock- 
ings for both boys. 
"Never mind the 
shoes," she told 
them. 

Jim thought the 
water pretty hot at 
first. But after he'd 
once . put his foot 
into it and kept it 
there for a moment, 
the water seemed 
pretty good. 

It was after dark 
when Uncle David 
finished the task of 
bringing In the ap- 
ples. Jim was too 
tired to think much at supper. But he had seen 
many things, and there were a dozen questions 
that he wanted to ask to-morrow. Peggy, too, 
was tired, and silent. 

Half an hour after supper both children were in 
bed and asleep. 




Jim Found the Water Pretty Hot 



CHAPTER VII 
ELI AND AARON 

Jim thought that he was the first one awake 
next morning. When he opened his eyes it was 
daylight. Horace was still asleep. There was 
no sound anywhere in the house, though outdoors 
the chickens were astir. The same white rooster 
was crowing. There were little noises coming 
from the direction of the barnyard. 

In the room where the girls were sleeping Peggy 
was awake, too. She had opened her eyes about 
the time Jim did. Before long both children 
heard footsteps coming down the hall. Aunt Lucy 
opened Jim's door to call Horace. Then she 
opened Peggy's door to call Jane. 

As soon as the boys had dressed they hurried 
downstairs. In the summer kitchen they met 
Uncle David coming in with a pail of milk in each 
hand. He and Andrew had finished the milking. 

The girls came down a moment later. 

"Now's our chance for Eli and Aaron," said 
Jane. 

So they trailed out, crossed the farmyard, and 

41 



42 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

opened the gate to the lane. Billy and Queen, 
the two colts, were in the feed yard and heard 
them coming. When the children arrived at the 
bars the colts were waiting, with their heads close 
together, over the top bar. 

Horace fished out some loaf sugar from a pocket 
where he'd stowed it the day before. He showed 




The Children Walked out to the Pasture 



Peggy how to hold a lump in the palm of her open 
hand. Holding it that way she could feed it to the 
colts without the chance that her hand would be 
nipped. The colts would pick it up with their lips, 
instead of taking it with their teeth. 

The children walked on out to the pasture where 
Eli and Aaron were fastened with ropes tied to 
stakes. The steers looked pretty big to Jim and 



ELI AND AARON 



43 



Peggy. They were much larger than Susan, the 
calf. Their heads were bigger, their necks were 
heavy, and their legs were thick and stocky. 

Horace picked an apple from a tree near by, and 
Jim held it out to Eli. At first Eli would only 
sniff at it. He backed away and lowered his head 
when Jim took a step forward. In fact Jim was a 




Jim Offered the Apple to Eli 

little afraid of him and he was a little afraid of 
Jim. After a time he grew more friendly. Finally 
he stood still while Jim stepped up close to his 
head and gave him the apple. 

"Get up on his back," suggested Horace. "I'll 
hold his head. He'll stand still all right, 
maybe." 

Jim didn't know what to think of that. But 



44 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

Horace urged him to try it. So he shpped around 
to Eh's side and started to chmb up. At once EU 
scrambled away. Horace held tight to his head 
and Jim tried again, on the other side. Eli 
backed around in the other direction. Horace 




Jim Climbed up on Eli's Back: 

picked another apple, and while he was feeding it to 
Eli, Jim slipped up on his back. But Jim didn't 
stay long. In a moment Eli put down his head 
and began to back around, pulling Horace with 
him. The girls laughed and squealed. Jim dug 
his fingers into the hair on Eli's shoulder and 
gripped Eli's sides with his knees and feet. Eli 



ELI AND AARON 



45 



arched his back up, shook his head, jumped side- 
wise — and Jim shd off to the ground. 

They went back to the house, then, to see if 
breakfast was ready. Brownie and Jerry were on 
hand as usual, near the kitchen door, and eyed 
them as they came up. The two ducks were not 




Brownie and Jerry Were on Hand 

like the others on the farm. They were really 
mallards, a kind of wild duck. A neighbor had 
found them in a marsh, when they were tiny duck- 
lings, and had given them to Jane and Horace 
to raise. So they grew up with the farm as their 
home, and stayed close by the house. Jane and 
Horace could handle them and pet them, but 
toward anyone else they were always a little timid 
and suspicious. If you came too near they would 



46 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

sidle away, watching you with beady eyes and 
making queer noises, hke "Quirk, quirk." Usually 
Brownie was the braver of the two. Jerry always 
let her lead, while he followed a little behind. 

Horace went into the house for a basin of water, 
and he and Jim washed up for breakfast. 




Billy and Queen at the Feed Yard Gate 



CHAPTER VIII 



CHORES 

When the children came out from breakfast 
they heard some one pounding in the barn. A 
moment later they 
caught sight of Andy 
carrying an empty 
barrel to the wagon. 
There were still 
more apples to be 
picked, while the 
weather was good. 

Aunt Lucy came 
to the door. 

"Horace," she 
said, "your father 
would like to have 
you feed the stock 
this morning. After 
that I think he needs 
you in the orchard." 

She smiled at Jane 
and Peggy, "I won- 
der if you girls won't help me in the kitchen for a 
while." 

47 




A Ladder Was Fastened against 
THE Hay 



48 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

The boys crossed the yard and went into the 
barn by the big, open double door. On the right 
there was a sohd wall of hay, extending back nearly 
to the other end of the barn. A few feet from the 
door a ladder was fastened against the hay, running 
straight up from the floor toward the roof, high 




They Carried the Hay to the Horses 

overhead. Horace scrambled up the ladder, and 
Jim climbed up after him. 

The hay wasn't level on top, but was in heaps, 
like little hills. It was slippery, too. You had to 
crawl on your hands and knees, and dig your toes 
in, when you first swung off the ladder. 

A pitchfork, with a straight, wooden handle and 



CHORES 49 

three long, slender tines, was standing near. 
Horace stuck it into one of the heaps of hay, lifted 
and pushed, and shoved the whole heap off to the 
floor below. He sent another heap flying down. 
Soon there was a big pile of hay on the floor. 
Then both boys scrambled over to the ladder and 
climbed down. 

On the left of the wide middle space in the barn, 
toward the far end, there was a board partition. 
There were openings in this, about three feet up 
from the floor. They were like windows without 
any glass, but were wider and not so high. At 
the bottom of each opening a kind of door was 
hinged, that let down against the partition. 

When Jim looked through one of the openings, 
he saw a horse's head, just inside. It was big 
Dan. Next was Ben, and next beyond was 
Milly. 

Standing in a corner were two more pitchforks. 
Horace took one, and Jim the other. Then both 
boys carried big forkfuls of hay to the horses, 
shoving the hay through the openings. As soon 
as the first of it came within reach of a horse, he 
stuck out his head and took a big mouthful. 

Across from the horses was a row of barrels. 
Jim looked into these and found that there was 
grain in them ; corn in one, oats in another, a kind 
of mixed or cracked grain in a third, and a ground 
feed, like coarse flour, in the last one. 



50 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



Horace was looking for a round, wooden meas- 
ure that was used for dipping up the grain. Jim 
found it in the bottom of a barrel that was nearly- 
empty. They filled it with corn, and divided the 
grain between Dan and Ben, pouring it into a 

shallow box that 
stood in the space 
near each horse's 
head. Then they 
filled the measure 
with oats, and di- 
vided that between 
the two horses. 
After that Milly re- 
ceived her share, 
though not so much 
as Dan or Ben. 

Andy had taken 
the cows to their 
pasture before Hor- 
ace and Jim came 
out from breakfast. 
The boys looked 
into the part of the barn where the cows were 
kept. It didn't have separate stalls boarded 
all the way up, like those for the horses, but 
was open all along. Where each cow's head 
would be there was a queer wooden framework 
that would open a little or close a little. That is 




Jim Found the Measure in one of 
THE Barrels 



CHORES 



SI 



the way the cows were fastened in their stalls. 
Each cow would put her head through one of the 
frames. Then when it was closed she couldn't 
get away, though she could move her head around, 
and up and down, all she pleased. 

The pigs came next. Horace brought two 
iron pails from the 
corner. The boys 
placed in each pail 
two measures of the 
ground feed from the 
last barrel. Then 
they carried the pails 
to the house. In 
the summer kitchen 
there was a big can 
of skim milk that 
Uncle David had 
put there after it 
had come from the 
separator. They 
tipped the can up 
and poured milk 
carefully into each pail until it was nearly full. 

Horace took one pail, Jim the other, and they 
crossed the yard to the shed where Nellie and 
her little white pigs lived. There was a trough 
inside the shed, close to the front. A wooden 
spout led from outside through a hole in the wall 




They Filled the Measure with Corn 



52 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



to the trough. The boys poured the milk and 
meal down this spout. Then they looked in the 
door. The pigs and their 
mother were crowding and 
pushing around the trough. 
One little pig was standing 
in it. 

The boys went back to the 
barn and the house twice 
more, and each time filled up 
the pails with the coarse meal 
and skim milk. These lots 
went to some black pigs back 
of the barn — fine, shiny fel- 
lows, almost as big as Nellie. 

When they had finished 
their chores, Uncle David and 
Andrew were ready with the 
barrels. Hojace thought of 
the work that seemed always 
waiting to be done, and won- 
dered how well Jim liked their 
life on the farm. But Jim 
appeared interested in all of 
it, and eager to do more. 
They spent the rest of the 
morning helping at the task of picking and barrel- 
ing apples. 



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At the Head of each 
Stall was a Framework 



CHAPTER IX 
PEGGY'S PIES 

While Jim and Horace were busy in the orchard 
with Uncle David, Peggy and Jane spent the morn- 
ing with Aunt Lucy. 

As soon as breakfast was over the girls went 
upstairs and spread back the covers on the beds, 
opening all of the windows. They left the beds 
that way, to air. 

When they returned to the kitchen. Aunt Lucy 
had cleared off the breakfast table, and filled a 
dishpan with steaming, hot water. Jane rolled 
up her sleeves and put on an apron that covered 
her all round and buttoned down the back. Peggy 
procured a supply of dish-towels. In half an 
hour the girls had finished the dishes. Aunt Lucy 
put them away in the cupboard, as Peggy wiped 
them dry. 

There were a few towels and napkins that Aunt 
Lucy was going to wash, for they would be needed 
before next week. Jane liked to help with things of 
this kind, and asked to do them. She turned a 
kitchen chair on its side and put a tub on it. Soon 

53 



54 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



she was busy rubbing the hnen up and down the 
washboard. 

Aunt Lucy had a plan to propose. 
"Peggy," she said, "how would you like to 
make some pumpkin pies for dinner?" 
Peggy looked wistful. 

"I'd like to, Aunt Lucy, but I don't know how." 
"I'll show you," Aunt Lucy assured her. 
Peggy was still doubtful, though she was eager to 

try. "Suppose 
I'd spoil them. f*" 
she said. 

"Well, we 
aren't going to 
have that kind 
ofpies,"declared 
Aunt Lucy. 

There was a 
heap of pump- 
kins outside, 
near the wood- 
shed, where Andrew had piled them. Peggy went 
out, found a round, smooth, brown one, and 
brought it in. She and Aunt Lucy cut it in halves, 
scraped the seeds out, cut each half into small 
pieces, and peeled each piece. Then they put the 
pieces into a steamer, and set them on the stove to 
cook. 

While the pumpkin was cooking, Peggy and Aunt 




There was a Heap of Pumpkins 



PEGGY'S PIES 



55 



Lucy swept and dusted the living-room, gathered 
up the books and papers that were about, and put 
the place in order. After that they made the beds. 
When they came back to the kitchen the pumpkin 
was done. They 
took it off the 
stove, and turned 
it out into a col- 
ander to cool and 
drain. 

Next they pre- 
pared the pie 
crust. Aunt Lucy 
showed Peggy 
how to sift the 
flour and work 
the lard into it. 

"You must al- 
ways have your 
lard quite cold," 
she said, *'and 
you mustn't work 
it with your hands very much, 
chop it in with a knife." 

Peggy rolled out the crust. Sometimes it 
wanted to stick to the rolling pin, but a little flour 
made it behave. Aunt Lucy lined the piepans 
with it, crimping the edges all round with her 
thumb and finger. 




Peggy Scraped the Seeds out 



It's better to 



56 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 




Aunt Lucy Lined the Pie Pans 



When the 
pumpkin was 
cool they w orked 
it through the 
colander to get 
it all smooth. 
Then Aunt Lucy 
showed Peggy 
how to prepare 
a custard, with 
milk and eggs 

and sugar. They mixed the pumpkin pulp with 

this, and added brown spices from little tin cans 

in the cupboard. 

Then they filled the 

pie pans as full as 

they would hold. 
The oven was 

hot — "Just about 

right," Aunt Lucy 

declared. If it was 

too hot, she said, 

the custard would 

boil and wouldn't 

be nice ; and if it 

wasn't hot enough 

the crust wouldn't 

bake right. So in ^ ^ ,, „ „ 

" They Filled the Fie Fans as f ull 

the pies went. as they would Hold 




PEGGY'S PIES 



57 



"How long will it take them?" asked Peggy. 

"Just about half an hour," said Aunt Lucy. 

Peggy sat down and watched the clock. It 
seemed a long time, and she felt pretty sure that 
the pies would be burned. Once Aunt Lucy 
looked in, but the oven door was open for only an 
instant, and all that Peggy saw was just a glimpse. 




Each Pie was a Beautiful Dark Brown 



Finally the time was up. Aunt Lucy took a 
holder, opened the oven door, and lifted the pies 
out one by one. They were a beautiful dark 
brown, and the crust looked just right. Peggy 
carried them carefully to a shelf in the summer 
kitchen, where they would cool. 

When Uncle David asked for a third piece at 
dinner, and Aunt Lucy told him who had helped 
make the pies, Peggy was quite proud. 



CHAPTER X 
CORN 

Uncle David came out with the boys after 
dinner, and sat with them on the porch for a few 
minutes. Jim wanted to ask about some of the 
things that he'd seen, but he couldn't tell where 
to begin. There were so many things that were 
new and interesting. 

Before he could get started, Andrew came in 
from the road, and Uncle David stood up. 

"Mighty good weather, Andy," he remarked. 
"What do you say to cutting that piece of corn, 
over beyond the brook ?" 

Andrew looked at the sky and studied the clouds 
for a moment. 

"Well," he replied, "don't know but we'd better. 
Looks like rain to-night or to-morrow." 

Jim waited to hear whether he and Horace were 
to go with the men ; but Uncle David and Andrew 
started to walk away. 

"Can we go 'long, Uncle David.?" asked Jim. 

"Sure, if you want to," said Uncle David. 

Horace was about to suggest a different plan, so 
far as he and Jim were concerned. But he re- 

S8 



CORN 59 

membered what his father had said about having 
Jim learn all about the farm, so he said nothing. 
Besides, Jim seemed anxious to go. 

The four of them — Uncle David, Andrew and 
the boys — walked out to the barn. Andrew went 
into the tool room, and came out with two queer- 
looking knives. They had wide heavy blades 




There was a Silo outside the Barn 

and short wooden handles, set at almost right 
angles to the blades. These were the knives made 
for cutting corn. 

As they went out through the far end of the 
barn Uncle David stopped by a machine that 
stood outside, near the door. It had a big en- 
closed part in the middle, made of tin or iron. 
From one side of this an iron pipe went straight 



6o JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

up as high as the roof of the barn, and then curved 
over. The end of it disappeared above the top of 
a queer, round building that rose in the air, close 
to the rear wall of the barn. There were no win- 
dows in the round building, nor any door that they 
could see from where they stood. 

''This is our new silo, Jim," said Uncle David, 




The Corn was Fed into an Ensilage Cutter 



pointing to the round building. " Here's where we 
store our ensilage for the cows." 

"What is ensilage V asked Jim. 

"It's corn," explained Uncle David, "cut green, 
and chopped up, stalks and all. This machine is 
the cutter that chops it up. We put the stalks in 
at this side, through that hole in the round, middle 
part. There's a thing in there that goes round and 



CORN 



6i 



has knives on it. You can see the pulley on the 
other side. It's run by a gasoline engine. The 
pieces of corn are 
blown up through the 
tall pipe and into the 
top of the silo." 

"How do you get 
it out V asked Jim. 

Uncle David took 
him around to the 
other side and showed 
him a row of doors, 
all the way from the 
bottom to the top of 
the silo. All were 
closed now, except 
the top one. 

*'We had nice en- 
silage corn this year, 
didn't we, Andrew," 
remarked Uncle 
David. "Some of it 
was nearly three times 
as tall as your head. 
Even Jane couldn't 
begin to reach the top 

leaves. Mr. Reynolds cut It for us. He has a 
binder that cuts it and ties it up. It was all that 
three horses could do to pull the machine through 




The Corn was twice as Tall as 
Jane 



62 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



it. You see we cut the ensilage corn while it's 
still green, before there's any frost. When it's 
packed down in the silo it keeps nice and fresh, 
and makes good feed for the cows." 

They walked on through a meadow, crossed the 
brook, and came out at the cornfield that Uncle 

David had 

./ pointedout 

\\ - ^, s, ^^ ; < a\ from the porch. 

The topmost 
leaves of the 
corn were 
touched with 
frost, so that 
they were 
brown instead 
of green, and 
rattled in the 
breeze. 

Uncle David 
and Andrew 
started in with 
the corn knives, 
cutting off the 
stalks a few inches above the ground. The ears 
were solid and heavy, and bent over, away from 
the stalk. Some stalks had only one ear, many 
had two, and a few had three. The silk at the 
end of each ear was brown and dry. 







Q^Mm^-^^'^^-''' 



They began Cutting the Corn 



CORN 



63 




64 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

As the stalks were cut off, Horace and Jim, with 
help from Andy, gathered them up, tied them into 
bundles, and made them into shocks. They set 
them up with the butt ends on the ground and the 
tops leaning together, adding more and more all 
around until the shock was so big that you could- 
n't see the other side without walking around. 
Then Andy came and bound the top of the shock 
to keep it from being blown down or falling apart. 
He didn't use twine to tie it, but took a corn-stalk 
and wrapped that around, twisting the ends and 
tucking them under. 

Jim began to get tired, toward the end of the 
afternoon. Uncle David watched him a moment, 
and then told him he'd better rest while the 
others finished up. Jim shook his head. But 
Uncle David insisted. So Jim found a place on 
the sunny side of a corn shock, and sat down, with 
his back among the rustling, crackly leaves. 

Not far away was a fence, with a tree growing 
beside it. After a while Jim happened to look 
that way and saw a squirrel come down the tree 
and hop over to a post of the fence. Jim kept still, 
watching closely, but not moving. For a time the 
squirrel sat there, jerking his tail and looking at 
Jim. Then he came down the side of the post and 
disappeared somewhere in a pile of rocks close by. 
Jim watched and waited. Once in a while he saw 
him again, running over the fence or scampering 



CORN 



65 



up the tree. Sometimes the squirrel sat up on the 
stones, and seemed to be holding something in his 
paws. 

Finally Jim walked 
over to the rocks, and 
found little heaps of 
nuts and shells piled 
up here and there 
on the stones. The 
tree near by was a 
hickory nut tree, and 
this was where the 
1 ate his 




There u 



Heap of Nuts and 
Shells 



squirrel 
meals. 

Then Horace came along, with Uncle David and 
Andrew following, and they all went back to the 
house to get ready for supper. 



CHAPTER XI 
MILK AND CREAM 

It was Aunt Lucy who thought about the milk- 
ing. 

When Jim and Peggy came down to the kitchen, 
early next morning, they found Aunt Lucy there, 
getting breakfast. 

"We'll have to wait for our cream," she said, 
"until Uncle David finishes the separating." 

"Is he out in the barn now ?" asked Peggy. 

"Haven't you children seen the cows and the 
milking yet ?" exclaimed Aunt Lucy. 

They shook their heads. 

"Well, run on out to the barn. Andrew and 
Uncle David are milking now. You'll get there 
before they finish, if you hurry." 

They raced out to the barn, back through the 
big middle part, and into the wing where the cows 
were kept. 

Uncle David was sitting on a little low stool, 
close up beside one of the cows. Between his 
knees was a pail. It was not like an ordinary pail, 
but had a rim around the top, so that the opening 

66 



MILK AND CREAM 



67 



was not so large, and it had a wide spout at one 
side. Uncle David was working with his hands at 
the milk bag of the cow, pulling down and letting 
go, steadily, first with one hand and then with the 
other. Each time he pulled down, a tiny stream of 
milk shot down into the pail. The cow stood 
pretty still, but sometimes she would swing her 

tail around as if 
there were flies 
to be switched 
off, and some- 
times she would 
raise one hind 
foot. It made 
the children 
wonder whether 
the milk wasn't 
going to be 
spilled. They 
looked into the 
pail, and found 
that it was nearly 
full. The top of the milk was covered with white 
foam. 

"Pretty good amount for one milking, isn't it ?" 
said Uncle David. 

*' Did you get all that from this one cow ?" asked 
Peggy. 

"Yes. She's giving this much every morning 




Uncle David was Milking 



68 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

and evening. This is Johanna. She's a good 
milker, but she's apt to be a httle cranky." 

As if to prove that he was right, Johanna switched 
her tail around, and hit Uncle David across his ear. 

Peter, the cat, came walking in, and sat down 
close by. 




There was a Box in the Spring 

"Want some milk, Peter?" asked Uncle David. 

Peter took a step or two nearer, and Uncle David 
shot a stream of milk at his head. Instantly Peter 
opened his mouth, and part of the milk went 
straight in. Peter blinked his eyes and licked his 
lips. 

When Johanna had been milked they went out, 



MILK AND CREAM 



69 




They Haul the Milk in Cans to the Railroad 



and Uncle 

David car- 
ried two cans 

of milk down 

to the spring. 

There was 

a box in the 

spring, placed 

so that the 

cold water 

came up in 

the box nearly 

to the top. 

The two cans went into this box. Uncle David 

explained that usually they had ice, from their own 

ice house, but this season 
the supply had given out 
and they used the spring 
instead. 

"What do you do 
with all the milk, Uncle 
David .f"' asked Jim, as 
they started toward the 
house. 

"Well, one of those 
two cans there is for 
ourselves, to drink and 

^ ,^ ,, use for cooking. The 

Ihe Dealers put the Milk in , ® 

Bottles Other is for somc folks 




70 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



that live up the road. They don't keep any cows, 

because they come out to their place only now 

and then. When they're 
here they send to us for 
the milk they need. 
Their hired man comes 
down every day. The 
rest of our milk we sep- 
arate. That's my next 
job. So you can watch, 
if you want to." 

"Do all the farmers 
here separate their 
milk ?" asked Jim. 

"No, only a few. 
Most of them send the 
whole milk to town. It 
goes in cans. Some use 
big cans, and some 
smaller ones. They haul 
it to the railroad at 
Milford every morning, 
and the train takes it to 
milk dealers in the city. 
The dealers put it into 
bottles, and deliver it 

all through the city to their customers. 

"That's the way ours comes, at home," said 

Peggy. 




Near the Wall was the 
Separator 



MILK AND CREAM 



71 



They walked in through the summer kitchen, to 
the milk room. Andrew had carried over the 
rest of the morning's milking. There were three 
big pails full, standing on a bench. 

Near the wall was the separator. It had a large 
pan on top, a middle part where two spouts came 






The Rack where the Milk Pails were Dried 



out, and a pail and a small can beneath the two 
spouts. At one side of the middle part was a 
crank. 

Uncle David set a cloth strainer over the pan 
on top, and poured in some of the fresh, warm 
milk. Next he began to turn the crank, slowly, 
and a humming noise sounded from the middle 
part of the machine. Then he opened a little 



72 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



spigot that connected with the bottom of the large 
pan, letting a little stream of milk flow into the 
middle part. In a moment another little stream 

began to come out 
of the spout over 
the pail, and al- 
most at the same 
time a very tiny 
stream of yel- 
low cream com- 
menced to flow 
from the other 
spout, into the 
small can be- 
neath. 

Uncle David turned steadily at the crank, once 
in a. while pouring more milk into the top pan. 
As the pail of skim milk filled up, he emptied it 
into a big can standing near. When he had 
finished, the small can was nearly full of yellow 
cream. 

Before they went to breakfast he showed them 
the rack outdoors where the milk pails and pans 
were put to dry in the sun, after they had been 
washed with hot suds to keep them clean and sweet. 




Lnclk U.' 



MiLKiNc; SruoL 



CHAPTER XII 
HOW AUNT LUCY MADE BUTTER 

Andrew's prediction about the weather came 
true. Early in the morning the sun was shining. 
But the sky in the east had been red at sunrise, 
and there were dull-looking clouds that gradually 
spread until they shut out the sun. While the 
children were at breakfast, drops began to fall, and 
soon it settled to a steady quiet rain. Once or 
twice the clouds broke away, but they soon closed 
in again. 

Andy came up in a black, rubber coat, and an 
old hat turned down all around. He and Uncle 
David went out to the tool shed to sort apples and 
head up the barrels. "Good thing we got the 
fruit picked," remarked Andrew. 

''Well, here it is Friday, and butter day," said 
Aunt Lucy to the girls. "Time to be at the 
churning." 

"Can we watch you ?" asked Peggy. 

"Yes, indeed." 

Jim and Horace were sitting in the door of the 
woodshed, making sling shots out of forked sticks 

73 



74 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



and a pair of rubber bands that Horace had found. 
They were too much interested in what they were 

doing to stop and 
watch the churning, 
though they came 
into the milk room 
later, to see the 
finish of the work. 

Aunt Lucy pre- 
pared the churn. It 
was like an oblong 
box, hung from a 
kind of framework 
by iron rods. There 
was a handle on each 
end and you could 
swing the box back 
and forth. In the 
top of it was a 
square lid, with a little round, glass window in it. 
A fire was going in the stove, in one corner of the 
milk room, and on the stove was a big boiler, full 
of hot water. Aunt Lucy rinsed out the churn with 
both cold water and hot. Then she poured in the 
cream. There was a big can half full of it, for it 
had been saved up each morning and evening for 
several days. 

Aunt Lucy sat down near one end of the churn, 
and started it going, back and forth. Inside of the 




The Boys were Making Sling Shots 



HOW AUNT LUCY MADE BUTTER 75 

churn the cream went "whoosh, whoosh," as it 
flowed against the ends of the box. It wasn't 
hard to keep the churn going. Once you had 
started it, just a little push each time kept it 
swinging. Pretty soon Peggy had a turn at it ; 
and then Jane ; and then Peggy again. 




The Churn was like an Oblong Box 



Gradually the noise made by the cream inside 
began to change. By and by Aunt Lucy un- 
fastened the cover, and they looked in. The 
cream had changed to a wet, crumbly looking 
mass, with the yellow color of the butter showing 
all through it. They put the cover on again and 
swung the churn a little longer. 



76 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

Then Aunt Lucy stopped it, set a pail under one 
corner, pulled out a plug, and let the buttermilk 
drain out. When it ceased running, she put in the 

plug again, 
opened the 
cover, and 
poured in a 
pail of cold 
water. The 
churn was set 
swinging. 
Then it was 
stopped and 
the water was 
drained out. 
This was done 
over again 
three or four 
times, until 
the butterwas 
washed clean 
of any butter- 
milk. When 
the girls 
looked in 
again they saw 
a handsome 
golden yellow heap in the bottom of the churn. 
On a table close by was a shallow box with a 




TnK Ridges on the Roller Sank into the 
Butter 



HOW AUNT LUCY MADE BUTTER -j^ 



roller over it that you could run back and forth 
with a crank. The roller had ridges on it, from end 
to end. Aunt Lucy took two paddles, one in each 
hand, reached into the churn through the hole in 
the top, and lifted out a mass of butter, holding it 
between the 
two paddles. 
She put this 
into the shal- 
low box where 
the roller was. 
Two or three 
more heaps of 
butter were 
added in the 
same way. 
Then she ran 
the roller back 
and forth. The ridges on it sank into the butter, 
spreading it out the length of the box. 

Next she sprinkled salt over the butter, and then 
with the paddles she turned the ends of the mass 
back over the part in the middle. Again the roller 
was run back and forth. Several times the butter 
was heaped up in the middle, and each time spread 
out again with the roller. 

Now Aunt Lucy was ready to make the prints. 
She took out of a pan of water a little square 
print-box. The bottom of it was a block of wood 




The Bottom ot~ the Print-box could be 
Lifted out 



78 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

that you could lift out. With a paddle and a 
flat, wood scraper Aunt Lucy filled the print-box 
full of butter, scraping it off level. Then she 
turned it upside down and lifted off the box. The 




Aunt Lucy Filled thl Print-b(x\ with Butter 

wooden block was left on top of the butter. This 
came off next, — and there was the golden yellow 
print. 

Later they wrapped the prints in squares of 
parchment paper. When all were finished, Jane 
and Peggy put them in a basket, carried them to 
the spring, and packed them away in a big crock 
that was waiting for them, inside the spring-box. 



CHAPTER XIII 



IN THE BARN 

When Horace and Jim had finished making the 
sling shots, they picked a chance between showers 
and dodged 
out to the 
barn. There 
was good 
space out 
there to try 
them. Also 
there was a 
supply of am- 
munition in 
the shape of 
corn — which 
wasn't always 
accurate, but 
couldn't do 
any harm. 

They hung 
up a tin can 
in the open 
barn door, got a supply of corn from the barrel, 
climbed up into a wagon that stood half-way back 

79 




They Began to Pepper the Can 



8o JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



in the barn, and began to pepper at the can. Usu- 
ally the corn would go straight enough, but some- 
times it swung around in a curve, so that it didn't 
go anywhere near the can. After a little Andy came 
up to .the door, when they weren't looking for him. 
"Good thing that's only corn you're shootin'," 
he laughed. 

Then two or three turkeys came draggling along 

in the wet and 
began to find 
the grains that 
had scattered 
here and there 
in front of the 
barn door. 

"Bet you 
can't hit a 
turkey," said 
Horace. 

Both boys 
tried it. But 
the turkeys were too far out in front of the barn 
to get hit very often, and they didn't mind it, 
anyhow. They merely went on walking around, 
eating the grains as fast as they could find them. 

Pretty soon Peter, Jane's cat, came walking out 
of the tool room, where he'd been watching for 
mice. Neither boy said anything to the other, 
but each sent a grain in Peter's direction. It 




Peter Stuck his IMi, Sikaichi i i' 



IN THE BARN 



8i 



couldn't hurt him ; but it did surprise him. He 
stuck his tail straight up, made about two jumps, 
and disappeared out of the barn door. 

After this there was nothing more to shoot at, 
except the can again. 

" Let me tell you what 
you'll get for supper," 
said Horace. 

"How d'you do it .?" 
asked Jim. 

"You take a handful 
of corn," explained Hor- 
ace, "and I say a rhyme 
with things to eat in it. 
Each time I name some- 
thing to eat, you take 
one of the grains of 
corn out of your hand. 
Then the thing that 
comes with the last 
grain is what you're going to have for supper 
See?" 

Jim got a handful of corn, and Horace began. 

"Apple pie, pumpkin pie, blackberry jam, 
A spoonful of paint on a little piece of ham. 

Whatever I say with the last grain of corn 

You'll have to eat for supper as sure as you're born. 

Fresh bread and butter, and custard in a bowl, 
An old, fuzzy coat, and a black chunk of coal. 




Whatever Comes wifn the Last 
Grain 



82 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



Roast potato, chicken wing, hot cross bun. 

When you eat what's coming, we'll have a lot of fun. 

Ice cream and cake, and a big bale of straw, 
A bull-frog's leg, and a pollywog's paw. 

A dish of plum pudding, and a yard of garden hose, 
An old, wooden Indian, without any nose. 

Woolly worms, wiggly worms. Ugh ! — Think of that ! 
The end of the tail of our old tom cat. 

If my rhyme is finished before the last grain, 

I'll have to eat 'em all myself, and get an awful pain. 

A red, juicy apple, and a nice, sharp axe, 
A handful of dirt, and a paper full of tacks. 



A stuffed, sawdust 
puppy, and an old 
rubber ball — 

There's no more in 
the cupboard, so I 
guess that's all." 

Horace didn't get 
to the end of the 
rhyme, though. 
Jim's last grain of 
corn came when 
Horace said "a 
paper full of tacks." 
So Horace declared 
that Jim would have 
to eat them, when 
supper time came. 




"A Papkr full of Tacks" for Suppkr 



IN THE BARN 



83 



The next hour they spent in the haymow, shding 
down the shppery heaps of hay, jumping from one 
place where the hay was piled high to another 
where it was lower, and examining an old swallow's 
nest in the gable end of the barn. By that time 









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91 


II^^BKJB -*. ^^vi^^^^v 


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mIM 



The Boys Hitched up Eli and Aaron 



the weather had cleared off, and the sun had come 
out. 

Henry Reynolds and his little brother Sam 
came over from their place on an errand. Henry 
was two years older than Horace. Jane and Peggy 
wanted to see Eli and Aaron hitched up. So the 
boys got the two steers, put the harness on them, 



84 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

hitched them to a wagon, and drove them around 
the yard. 

The sky was so clear by this time that it seemed 
certain that the rest of the day would be fine. 
Horace hunted up his father, and came back in a 
few minutes with permission to take Jim, after 
dinner, and go fishing. Before Henry left they 
got a spade and a tin can, and Henry helped dig 
a lot of fishworms for bait. It was easy to get 
them, after the rain. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE FISHING TRIP 

The boys hustled through their dinner, and were 
soon ready to start. Uncle David offered them a 




• Horace got out thk Fishlines and Corks 

fish basket and a jointed pole to take along. But 
Horace didn't want to bother with them. "We'll 
cut our poles," he said, "won't we, Jim. And if 
you take a basket, you won't get any fish." 

From a box on a shelf in the woodshed he got 

8s 



86 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



out two fishlines, wrapped around pieces of shingle. 
There was a hook and a sinker already fastened on 
each line. Then he laid out two corks. Each 
boy stowed his outfit away in a pocket. Horace 

had some ex- 
tra hooks and 
sinkers and a 
stout cord in 
a small, tin 
box, and these 
he added to 
his outfit. 
Thefishworms 
he took out of 
the empty to- 
ma t o can, 
where Henry 
had put them, 
transferring 
them to a 
small can with 
a lid so that 
he could cairry 
them in an- 
other pocket. 
*' Which way are you going ? " asked Uncle David. 
"Down the brook," said Horace. "Guess we'll 
go to the pond where the old mill used to be." 
Horace tried to find Spot. But Spot had gone 




He put the FisHwoRMS IN a«Bait-can 



THE FISHING TRIP 



87 



visiting again, over'at Tag's, so he missed the trip. 
The boys went out the lane, cut across through the 
back field, climbed a fence, and came out on the 
farther side of a little wood. The brook was in a 
meadow, below them to their right, beyond a wire 
fence. 
They started toward it. Before they had gone 



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Jim's Overalls Caught on iiii l>\ki;iii Wiri 

halfway there was a queer noise behind them, up 
the hill, and something snorted. 

*'Come on, Jim," yelled Horace. 

In an instant both boys were running down the 
hill as fast as they could, toward the fence. Once 
Jim slipped, and fell flat with his heels up in the 
air. But he was on his feet again, almost before 



JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



he knew he had fallen. Horace dived under the 
fence, with Jim close after him. It was barbed 
wire, and as Jim went under he caught his overalls 
on one of the barbs. He pulled loose, scrambled 
through and caught again as he got up on the other 
side. 

Horace was staring up the sfope, with a dis- 
gusted look on his face. 

"Shucks," he said, "I thought it was Simpson's 

bull and it's 
only his crazy, 
old , black 
cow. 

Sure enough, 
there she was, 
trotting down 
the slope to- 
w a r d the 
fence. 

''Was she 
chasin' us?" 
panted Jim. 
"Oh, she tries to," said Horace, "but you see 
Simpson has that board fastened on her head, in 
front of her eyes. When she puts her head down 
to run after you, she can't see you any more. 
She can't hurt you." * • 

They walked on down the bank of the brook, 
leaving the black cow standing beyond the fence. 




A Board was Fastened over her Eyes 



THE FISHING TRIP 



89 



Pretty soon Jim found a wooden sign fastened 
to a rough post. Its letters were almost gone, 
but Jim managed to make out that it was a warning 
not to fish in the brook. 

"Oh, that doesn't count," said Horace. "This 
is Mr. Taylor's field, and he wouldn't care about us. 
Anyhow we're go- 
ing on down to the 
old mill." 

Before they 
reached the pond 
Horace decided 
they'd cross to the 
other side of the 
brook. Jim found 
a place where an 
old plank had 
lodged on some 
brush, and he 
stepped on it to 
try it. But the 
farther end slipped 
off into the water. So they Vent on to another 
place that Horace knew about, and crossed on 
a fallen tree. 

Just below, the brook widened out to form a 
pond. Horace led the way to a spot on the bank 
where he had fished before. There were three or 
four rough poles leaning against the bushes. One 




Jim Found a Sign thai said "No Fishing" 



90 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

of them Horace had cut on another trip. They 
tied on their Unes, baited the hooks, fastened on 
the corks about three feet up from the bait, and 
sat down to wait for bites. 

For a long time the corks floated without a sign. 
Sometimes they would drift in to shore, and the 
boys would lift the poles and swing the lines out 
farther again. Once a muskrat came swimming 
across the pond toward them. But he caught sight 
of them and dove, and they did not see him any 
more. 

After a while something made Jim's cork jiggle. 
He jerked up, but there was nothing on his hook. 
As soon as he dropped it in, it began jiggling again. 

"That's shiners," said Horace. "They'll eat 
your bait off^. They're so little you can't catch 
em. 

Pretty soon they began nibbling at Horace's 
hook, too. Each boy had to put on new bait, 
several times. 

Finally the boys moved to a new place. But 
there weren't even any shiners there. So they 
left the poles with fhe ends braced under roots 
and the lines in the water, and went to explore 
the old, tumble-down mill. 

While they were sitting on the stones that had 
once been part of the milldam, a fish jumped, in 
the water below them. 

"See that .?" said Horace. "Let's try it here." 



THE FISHING TRIP 



91 



They took up their poles, and found that shiners 
had cleaned their hooks bare. £ach boy picked 
out an extra big worm, and baited up. Horace 
grinnedj'and spit on his bait. 

"Bet I catch one, now," he said. 

But the corks still floated idly around. 

Then when Horace was wondering whether to try 
another place 
before they 
went home, 
his cork sud- 
denly sank 
out of sight. 
He jerked up 
on the pole 
— and his 
line flipped 
up into the 
air — empty. 

At that mo- 
ment Jim's 




HoRACt Caught Three and Jim Caught Two 



cork went down. Jim jerked, and swung a flash- 
ing, wiggling fish out on the bank. They both 
scrambled up. Soon they had their capture strung 
on the heavy cbrd that Horace had brought. In 
a few minutes the boys had three more ; two for 
Horace and one for Jim. 

For a long time, then, they waited. Finally 
Horace caught another. But after that neither 
could get any more bites. 



92 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

By that time it was nearly sundown. Neither 
boy was ready to leave ; but each was getting 
hungry. They untied their lines, fastened the 
string of fish to the middle of one of the poles, and 
tramped home. t 

At supper Uncle David suggested a plan for the 
next day. He would need to make a trip to Free- 
port, a large town about seven miles from Meadow- 
brook Farm. On the way back he planned to drive 
around by Milford, to let big Dan have a visit at 
Old Tom's blacksmith shop. The plan was that 
Horace and Jim should go along. The boys 
grinned and looked at each other. Evidently the 
plan suited them. 

"Mind you, boys," said Uncle David, "you'll 
have to rustle out early in the morning. It's a 
long drive, and we can't make such good time with 
Dan as we could with Milly." 



CHAPTER XV 

ON THE WAY TO FREEPORT 

It was hardly daylight when Uncle David called 
them next morning. The boys hurried through 
breakfast and a little later they were ready to start. 



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Around a Bend they Met a Peddler's Wagon 

Dan was hitched to a light farm wagon. In the 
wagon bed were three or four boxes, covered with a 
piece of heavy canvas that was tied to the back 
of the seat and the rear end of the bed. The boys 
and Uncle David just filled up the seat. 

93 



94 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



They drove down the lane, turned into the high- 
way, rattled across the bridge, and climbed the 
long hill. Around the bend at the top a funny 

looking wagon came 
into view. 

'* 'Morning, 
Jacob," called Uncle 
David, as the wagon 
drew near. "You've 
made an early start 
this morning." 

Jim looked at the 
wagon in wonder. 
It was built high up 
in back and had 
doors and drawers 
everywhere. 

"He's a peddler," 
Uncle David ex- 
plained to Jim, when 
Jacob had passed. 
"He comes around 
every month or so. 
You'd be surprised 
to see what he has In that wagon : pretty nearly 
everything from clothespins to dresses. He'll stop 
at the house. It's handy to have him come around. 
Usually there are things that we're out of, and we 
can get them of him. Everybody buys of him." 




Near a Barn was a Well Drill 



ON THE WAY TO FREEPORT 



95 



They drove on down past the schoolhouse and 
into the Freeport road. Beyond the corner was a 
tall, wooden derrick near a barn. Jim asked what 
it was for, and learned that it was a well drill. 
The men were just beginning the day's work, so 




Jim had Seen a Gasoline Engine Fastened to a Pump 



Uncle David stopped a minute to watch them 
start up. 

There was a steam engine under a shed next to 
the derrick. A heavy rope ran from the shed, over 
a big pulley on top of the derrick, and down on the 
other side. On the end of it was a long piece of steel. 
This was the drill. Soon the men lowered this down 
into a pipe that disappeared in the ground. 

Then the engine started up, and the rope began 



96 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



to move back and forth over the pulley, raising 
the big steel drill, and letting it come down again. 

Uncle David explained 
that they would drill on 
into the ground that way 
until they struck water. 
Then they would put in 
a pump, and perhaps a 
windmill, or a gasolene en- 
gine to run the pump. 

Before they came to the 
schoolhouse Jim had seen 
a gasolene engine fastened 
to a pump. It was close 
to the road, beside a house 
near the top of the hill. 

A little farther on they 
came to a tall windmill, 
standing back of a farm- 
yard. There was a tank 
built in the tower of the 
mill. 

'*Does each farm have 
a well ?" asked Jim. 
*' Yes," said Uncle David. 
"That is, unless it has a good spring, like ours. 
You see, we can't have a water supply in the 
country like you have in the city. It would be 
too far to run pipes to each house, even if you 




There was a Tank Built in 
THE Tower 



ON THE WAY TO FREEPORT 



97 



had a big pumping station somewhere. Each 
farm has to provide its own water. Of course 
not all of them have a mill or an engine to do 
the pumping. Lots have just an open well, with 
a hand pump or a bucket, and they must carry 
the water into the 
house or wherever 
they want to use 
it." 

** There's a funny 
building at the sec- 
ond place from here," 
he continued. 
"You'll see it pretty 
soon. The next 
place is Sturtevant's. 
He keeps a lot of 
cattle, and has an iron 
cow for a weather- 
vane, on top of his An Iron Cow for a Weathervane 

barn." 

"Why do you have weathervanes r' asked Jim. 

Uncle David turned to Horace. 

"Why do we have them, Horace .?" he said. 

Horace looked surprised. 

"Guess it's to tell us which way the wind blows," 
he suggested. 

"Well," said Uncle David, "I think it's a little 
more than that. It helps the farmer to tell what 




98 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

the weather's going to be. When the wind blows 
this way or that, and when it switches around or 
blows steady, or changes from one way in the morn- 
ing to another after dinner, it all means something. 
I suspect that's the reason we call them weather- 
vanes. And you know the weather means a lot 
on a farm. Pretty much of every day's work 
depends on the weather." 

After a little they came to the building that 
Uncle David had spoken of. It was a round barn 
— as round and smooth as a haystack. Uncle 
David explained that it was built that way because 
it had the most room in it for the least amount of 
lumber. But most farmers didn't like it, because 
it was hard to arrange the stalls and other things 
inside. 

There was a covered wagon with a white top 
in front of the house opposite the round barn. 
The back curtain of the wagon was raised, like an 
awning. A man in a white coat was standing 
under it, showing something to a woman who had 
come out of the house. 

"There's Steve," remarked Horace. "He didn't 
come around our way last week." 

"He's the meatman," said Uncle David to Jim. 
"He drives around to the farms and brings them 
fresh meat. It's pretty convenient. And you can 
always see what you're getting." 

He looked at Jim a moment. "Does a meat- 



ON THE WAY TO FREEPORT 



99 



man come to your house at home, Jim?" he 

asked. 

"Yes," said Jim, "there's one comes every day." 
He thought a moment, and then added, "But 

he brings only the meat that you've ordered." 




A Covered Wagon Stood in Front of the House 



As they came in toward Freeport they passed a 
fine-looking farm, with many white-painted build- 
ings, all neat and in perfect order. Uncle David 
pointed to it as they drew near. "Pretty nice 
place, isn't it, Jim .^" he said. 

Jim nodded his head. He was thinking that 
he'd like to own a place like that. 



CHAPTER XVI 
THE WOODPILE 

When they arrived at Freeport, Uncle David 
began delivering the things that were in the 
boxes in the back of the wagon. He drove to 
different houses, here and there. At nearly every 
place he left two or three of Aunt Lucy's butter 
prints, done up in the parchment paper. Some- 
times he carried in eggs, in a basket, and at two or 
three places he delivered a dressed chicken. 

''These are our regular customers," he explained 
to Jim. "We go Saturday of each week. That 
way, you see, we get more for our butter and eggs 
than we would if we shipped them on a train to the 
city. 

Next they drove to two or three stores where 
Uncle David bought a can of paint, and a coil of 
rope, and other things. At the last place he 
carried out to the wagon two heavy bags labeled 
"Cottonseed Meal." 

"That's for the cows," he said. 

Then they started for Milford, to visit Old 
Tom's blacksmith shop. 

After they were out in the country again they 



THE WOODPILE loi 

met a man driving toward town with a load of 
wood. He reined in his horses as they came up, 
and Uncle David stopped, too. 

" How are you, Ned ? " he said. " Hauling wood 
to the brickyard ?" 

"No, this is for Doctor Eaton." 



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"What's it worth now?" asked Uncle David. 

"I'm getting four fifty for this," said Ned. 

"Not much in it at that, is there.?" remarked 
Uncle David. 

They drove on by, Ned's horses straining in the 
harness to get their heavy load started. 

"I'll show you in a minute where he's hauling 
from," said Uncle David to Jim. Shortly they 



f02 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



came to a place where there had been a grove. 
The trees had been cut down. You could see the 
stumps all about. Here and there were piles of 

cordwood, like 
that on Ned's 
wagon. Each 
pile had sticks 
braced at the 
ends to keep 
the wood from 
rolling down. 

''Did you 
ever saw up 
any cordwood, 
Jim ?" asked 
Uncle David. 

Jim shook 
his head. 
Uncle David 
, ,. „, u turned to Hor- 

A 1-ARMER WAS AT WORK. WITH A BuCKSAW " 

ace. " H ow 
about it, Horace?" he asked. ''Would you like 
the job ?" 

"I wouldn't mind, with a gas engine saw," 
said Horace. 

"No, I mean with a bucksaw," contended 
Uncle David. 

"But nobody uses a bucksaw any more," 
Horace insisted. 




THE WOODPILE 



103 
There's 



"Some folks do," said his father, 
a man over there now, sawing with one." 

The boys looked, and saw a farmer working 
near his woodpile. He had a stick of cordwood 
laid across a framework, and was cutting it into 




A Man was Sawing a Big Log 

lengths with a saw that had a narrow blade held 
in a sort of wood square. 

Before long they came to another farm where 
there were big, gnarly logs in the yard. A man 
was cutting one of these in two with a long, steel 
saw that had a straight handle at one end. 

" Haven't seen any gas saw yet, Horace," laughed 
Uncle David. 

"Does everybody use wood in the country?" 
Jim inquired. 



I04 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



"No. There are many farmers now that use 
coal. But I hke the wood best, and so does your 
Aunt Lucy. It's cleaner, and we think it makes a 
better fire. Besides, we have it on the farm, and 
don't have to buy it, as we would coal. You see, 

a good many 
farms have tim- 
ber growing on 
them some- 
where. If they 
manage it right 
they can cut 
what wood 
they need each 
year, right on 
their own 
place." 

They came, 
after all, to a 
gas engine saw, 
just before they 
arrived at the 
blacksmith shop. You could hear the engine 
"bang, banging" long before you could see it, 
while in between you could hear the loud hum as 
the saw cut through the wood. 

The engine was fastened on a heavy frame- 
work. A belt ran from it to a pulley. The saw 
was round, and went so fast that it looked like a 




They Came to a Gas Engine Saw 



THE WOODPILE 105 

smooth, shining disk of steel. It took only a few 
seconds to cut a stick of cordwood into short 
lengths. 

"That's a good dealeasier work, isn't it ?" said 
Uncle David. "The engine does the hard part. 
There are many things on a farm, nowadays, that 
a gasoline engine can do for you." 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE DRIVE HOME 

Old Tom was out in front of the blacksmith 
shop, fitting shoes on a white horse that was hitched 




(Jl,l) 1\),\1 WA.s 1'1111.\(. Sll()l..s ON A Wmil. lluRSl. 

to a ring by the wide door. The boys jumped 
down from the seat. Uncle David unhitched Dan, 
and tied him to another ring, at the other side of 
the door. 

io6 



THE DRIVE HOME 



107 



Close at hand by Old Tom was his queer box for 
tools. There was a wide lower part, in which 
were hammers, pincers and a big, rough file. 
Above this was a smaller part with partitions in it. 
In this were smooth, new horse-shoe nails. On 
the side of the box was 
a leather loop, inclosing a 
thin, curved knife with a 
bone handle. 

The horse was standing 
on three legs. Old Tom 
bent over, close to his 
shoulder, and held the hoof 
of the other leg across his 
knee. He tested the shoe 
all around, to see if it fitted, 
and smoothed off the hoof 
a little with his rasp. Then 
he drove in a nail, with 
short, quick taps and bent 
the point of the nail over 
where it came out. Other 
nails were driven in and 
bent over. Next he snipped ofi^ the bent ends of 
the nails with big, iron nippers. Finally he ran 
the rough file around the outside of the hoof, 
leaving it neat and smooth. 

Near the road, by a corner of the shop, was a tall 
stack of old, rusty horseshoes. The top of the pile 




ruEKE WAS A Stack, uf Rusty 
Horseshoes 



io8 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

was higher than your head. This was Old Tom's 
business sign. 

Horace and Jim walked into the shop and looked 
around. It was half dark inside, for there were 
only two low windows, and these were covered with 
dust and cobwebs. At the middle of one side was 
a brick forge with a smoky chimney, and overhead 
a big bellows with a leather thong hanging down. 
When you pulled this it sent a gust of wind shoot- 
ing up through the fire in the forge, making the 
coals turn red and little sparks fly up the chimney. 
Close by was the anvil, on top of a wooden block. 
On the walls were rows of new horseshoes, hung on 
nails. 

When the boys came out again, Uncle David 
looked into one of the boxes in the wagon and 
brought out a paper package. 

"Must be after dinner time," he said. *' Here's 
something Aunt Lucy put in for us." 

The boys climbed up on the seat of the wagon, 
opened the package, and dived in. Uncle David 
walked around with a sandwich in one hand, an 
apple in the other, and a doughnut hooked over a 
finger. By the time they had finished their lunch, 
Old Tom had reset Dan's shoes. 

Jim and Horace went across the road to get a 
drink at the well where Old Tom lived. There was 
a wooden rail, like a big box, around the opening of 
the well. When you looked over you could see the 



THE DRIVE HOME 



109 



water, 'way down deep, with the sky reflected in it. 

A bucket was fastened on a chain that ran over a 

pulley above the well. Jim let it down. When it 

struck the water, 

it turned on its 

side and filled. 

He hauled it up, 

full of water, and 

each boy took a 

big drink. 

By this time 
Dan was hitched 
up, and they were 
ready to start for 
home. They 
drove out, down 
the short steep 
hill, and into the 
road that leads to 
the four corners. 
There were many 
people out, on 
their way to town 
to do their shop- 
ping. 

Once they passed an ox team — great, strong 
fellows, with white faces and wide spreading horns. 
A man walked beside them, carrying a slender 
stick over one arm. The oxen moved very slowly. 




Jim and Horace got a Drink at the Well 



no JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOW BROOK 

They looked as if they could easily haul a heavy 
load. 

Farther along Uncle David pointed out a big 
tank set on a wooden tower, on a knoll near a farm- 
house. 

"That's a pretty good water tank, isn't it .?" he 




A Man Walkkd kksidk ihh U.\ I'kam 



said. "You see that's partly to protect the farm 
buildings from fire. There's a pipe from the tank 
to the house and the barn. If the tank is kept full 
it holds a lot of water, and it's so high that it gives 
enough pressure to throw a stream of water clear 
over the barn." 

"Isn't there any fire department in the coun- 
try ?" asked Jim. 



THE DRIVE HOME 



III 



"No, that's another thing that each farm has to 
look out for. Most farms haven't any fire protec- 
tion to speak of — only buckets, or something of 
that kind, and they don't amount to much. 
Generally if a house or a 
barn catches on fire it 
burns down flat. But, 
you know, the houses are 
so far apart, it's usually 
a man's own fault if his 
place catches afire." 

There was a windmill 
on a wooden tower, in a 
field below the big tank. 

"Guess that must be 
the windmill that pumps 
water to the tank," said 
Jim. 

"No," said Uncle 
David, "there's a gaso- 
line engine to do that. 
The windmill wouldn't 
supply enough. It 
doesn't pump fast ; and 
besides there are often days in summer when the 
wind doesn't blow very much, or maybe not 
at all." 

Old Dan traveled steadily on, around the turn 
at the four corners, along by the marshy place 




Uncle David Pointed out 
Big Tank 



112 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

in the brook, past the schoolhouse at the fork, 
and then slowly up the hill. The afternoon 
was half over when they rattled across the 
bridge and turned into the lane at Meadow- 
brook Farm. 




Ihe Farm 'iHai Ji.\; .iiuluhi IIl wullu Likl lu Uwn 



CHAPTER XVIII 



A VISIT TO THE REYNOLDS FARM 

While Uncle David and the boys were away on 
their drive to Freeport, Aunt Lucy and the girls 
had a trip of 
their own. 

Eve ry body 
was up by day- 
light that morn- 
ing. Breakfast 
came early, in 
order that Uncle 
David could get 
away promptly. 
Before long the 
dishes were done 
and the kitchen 
put in order. 
Jane and Peggy 
gathered the 
eggs and fed the 
chickens, scat- 
tering some of 
the grain under the trees in the orchard where the 
hens were scratching. Next they filled up the 
I 113 




Jane Brought in the Eggs 



114 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



ducks' bathtub for Brownie and Jerry. Peggy 
brought in a basket of chips from the woodpile. 
An hour later the beds had been made and the 
rest of the work about the house was finished. 

Aunt Lucy took off 
her apron. 

"I'd like to see Mrs. 
Reynolds a few minutes 
about the church social," 
she said. "Don't you 
girls want to walk over 
with me V 

Spot had been left be- 
hind by the boys and 
Uncle David. So he 
went along, to call on his 
brother, Tag. Susan, the 
calf, called "Baa-a-a" 
after them as they went 
out the lane. Susan 
The MiLKWEKD Pods HAD Brokin didn't havc much use 
^'''' for Spot: he liked to 

bark at her, and that always made her jump. 

In a fence corner Jane found a milkweed. The 
ripe pods had broken open, and the neat rows of 
brown seeds, each with its fluffy parachute of 
down, were ready for their flight. Jane ran up 
the road ahead of them. 

"Let me send you a letter," she called to Peggy. 
"No fair moving from the letter box." 







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A VISIT TO THE REYNOLDS FARM 115 

She pulled out a mass of the seeds and tossed 
them into the air. The breeze carried them toward 
Peggy. 

"Make a wish, quick," called Jane. "If you 
get a letter it will come true." 

Peggy reached high for the nearest seeds, but 




Andy's Cow was Reaching through the Fence 

the wind carried them by, just beyond the tips of 
her fingers. 

"Anyhow, I didn't have time to wish," she said. 

There were handsome sumac bushes beside the 
road, the top of each bush gay with clusters of 
bright red seeds. From a low tree hung festoons 
of wild clematis vine, set all along with little fuzzy 



ii6 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



tufts. Beneath the clematis was a plant of wild 
aster, with beautiful, violet-blue flowers. Jane 
started to pick them, but they looked so pretty- 
where they were that she let them be. 

They passed the house where Andy and Aunt 
Hannah lived. Neither was at home, but Andy's old 

cow came over 
to the fence 
and looked 
at them. 
After they had 
walked by she 
stuck her head 
between the 
wires at the 
bottom of the 
fence, to get at 
the grass on 
the other side. 
The last they saw of her she was still there, reach- 
ing farther and farther out through the wires. 

They turned in at the Reynolds farm. Mrs. 
Reynolds saw them coming, and she and Polly 
came out on the porch to meet them. Jane and 
Peggy and Polly sat on the porch for a few minutes. 
Then Henry Reynolds and his small brother Sam 
took them out to the chicken yards and the barn. 
Sam had a flock of chickens that he called his 
own. He had already been feeding them, but he 




Ir[ENRY Brought out his Colt 



A VISIT TO THE REYNOLDS FARM 117 



made Henry get another measure of grain and hold 
it for him while he scattered handfuls of it among 
the hens. 

Henry brought out his colt for the girls to see, — 
a dark bay, except for a tiny white star in the 
middle of his forehead. Henry turned him loose 
in the feed yard, and he jumped and ran around 
like a boy just 
out of school. 

Polly ran 
to one of 
the chicken 
yards, and 
came back 
with her pet 
drake, Moses, 
in her arms. 
He was a big, 
white fellow, 
with yellow 

eyes, — a Pekin drake, Polly said. Henry brought 
a pan of grain. Polly sat down with Moses in her 
lap, and Jane held the pan while Moses gobbled 
the grain. 

Then there were four or five shy, little calves to 
see ; and a flock of noisy geese that stuck out their 
heads, hissing and honking ; and a lot of busy, 
grunting and squealing pigs, big and little. When 
they returned to the house Jane and Peggy found 




Polly Came back: with Moses 



ii8 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



that they and Aunt Lucy were to stay f9r 

dinner. 

Early in the afternoon Aunt Lucy said that it 

was time to go 
back home. 

"This isn't 
getting my 
work done," 
she said. 
"David and 
the boys will 
be coming 
back soon, and 
there's supper 
to prepare." 

PoUywalked 
back with 
them as far 
as the lane to 
Meadowbrook 
Farm. Just 
beyond Andy 
Wiggin's place 
they stopped 
to look at a big 

clump of goldenrod, growing between the fence and 

the road. It was in full bloom. The top was a 

mass of rich, golden yellow. 

"May I pick one ?" asked Peggy. 




Peggy Gathered an Armful of Goluenrou 



A VISIT TO THE REYNOLDS FARM 119 

"Why, yes, child," said Aunt Lucy, ''all you 
want." 

"Don't they belong to anybody ?" Peggy asked. 

"No, these are just wild flowers. There are 
so many of them everywhere that none of the 
people living on the farms would care if you take 
them." 

So Peggy gathered an armful of the long stalks 
with their yellow plumes at the top, and carried 
them home with her. 




Wild Asters, with Violet-blue Flowers 



CHAPTER XIX 

SUNDAY MORNING 

It seemed pretty threatening when Jim looked 
out of his window early next morning. For a 
moment the sun would shine ; next a cloud would 
shut it out ; then there would be a flash of sunshine 




Peggy got a Drink at the Spring 

again. Jim remembered that it was Sunday and 
wondered if they would drive to town to church, 
as Aunt Lucy had said they would the night be- 
fore, and if Uncle David would take him and 
Horace for a tramp after dinner, as they'd planned. 



SUNDAY MORNING 121 

Peggy and Jim walked down to the spring before 
breakfast. It was always more fun to get a drink 
there than at the house. The water seemed better, 
and it was interesting to watch it come boiling up 
through the white sand in the bottom of the pool. 

The spring was on the farther side of the brook, 
at the foot of a bank. There was a path to it from 




The Brook Widened out above a Dam 

the house, with a plank for a bridge where the 
path crossed the brook. Just above the plank the 
brook widened out above a little dam, made partly 
of stone, partly of earth. Jim sat down on the 
plank, and watched the wateii flowing down over 
the stones of the dam. 

Soon Uncle David joined him. 

"This brook's a pretty good worker, Jim," he 



122 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



remarked. "Did you know that it pumps the 
water that we use at the house ?" 

Jim had noticed a kind of box on the bank, a 
Httle below the dam. Down in the hole under the 

box he had seen a 
small, round, iron 
thing that kept 
"chug, chugging" 
steadily away, all 
the time. Every 
time it chugged, a 
spurt of water came 
out at one side of 
it. Uncle David 
explained how it 
worked. 

"There's a big 
pipe," he said, " that 
runs from above the 
dam down to the 
bottom of the hole 
below the box. The 
machine down there 
is what is called a 
ram. The water from the brook flows through 
it and makes it pump. But it doesn't pump 
the brook water. There's another pipe, a small 
one, that comes from the spring to the ram. 
That is the water that the ram pumps. It sends 







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There was a Box on the Bank 



SUNDAY MORNING 



123 



it up through a supply pipe to a tank in the attic 

of the house. It doesn't pump very fast ; but it 

works all the time, night and day, and so it gives 

us all we need. In 

winter it works just 

the same as in sum- 

mer. 

There didn't seem' 
to be any doubt in 
Uncle David's mind 
about driving to town 
to church. After 
breakfast Andrew- 
brought Milly out 
from her stall, hitched 
her to a ring at the 
door of the barn, and 
gave her coat a good 
cleaning. In one 
hand he held a sort 
of flat scraper, with thin iron ridges on the under 
side of it : — a currycomb, he called it. In the 
other hand he had a brush that looked like a big 
hairbrush without any handle. With the curry- 
comb he scraped off any mud or dirt on Milly's 
coat ; then he rubbed her hair with the brush. 
Every little while he knocked the currycomb edge- 
wise against the door frame to get the dirt out 
of it. Sometimes Milly would switch her tail or 





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House 



124 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROQK 



start to raise one of her hindjegs, and then Andy 

would say "Steady now, steady." 

After Andy had her sleek and clean, he picked 

Jim up and swung him on to Milly's back. She 

seemed pretty big 
to Jim. Her back 
was broad, and 
his feet reached 
only part way 
down her sides. 
When Jim had 
looked at her from 
the ground she 
didn't appear 
very large, but 
when he was on 
her back it seemed 
different. 

Aunt Lucy 

Andy took: the Currycomb and Brush Came OUt then 

and called Jim 
and the others into the house, to wash up and 
change their clothes. 

By ten o'clock they were on their way to Mil- 
ford. Milly jogged along, up over the hill, down 
by the schoolhouse, and past the place where the 
road crossed the brook at the marshy spot and 
the trees arched overhead. 

When they arrived at the church they drove 




SUNDAY MORNING 



125 



around to the rear to leave Milly and the surrey. 
There was a long, low buildhig there, open all 
along one side. In this were a dozen carriages 
and buggies, lined up beside one another. They 
found a place for Milly, toward the farther end. 



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The Church at Milford 



When church was over they drove back home 
again. It was after one when they reached 
Meadowbrook Farm. Hannah Wiggin was there, 
and had dinner ready for them. 



CHAPTER XX 
GOOD ROADS AND BACK ROADS 

Horace and Jim were out in the yard, throwing 
stones toward the brook to see who could hit the 
water. Uncle David had not yet left the dining 
table, but sat with his chair pushed back, talking 
with Aunt Lucy and the girls. 

''Last day before school," remarked Horace. 
" D'you know that you and Peggy are going to 
start in to-morrow at our school .?" 

Jim nodded. Aunt Lucy had told him of the 
plans, and he had been wondering a good deal 
about the school, and how he would like it. He 
felt that he'd rather stay around the farm, though 
Peggy seemed anxious to go. 

Uncle David came out with his hat on. He 
whistled for Spot. But Spot was behind the 
summer kitchen, eating his dinner, and didn't 
appear. 

"Well, who wants to go for a walk .?" he asked. 

The three of them started off down the lane. 
In a few minutes Spot came tearing around a cor- 
ner of the house, raced along to catch up, and 

126 



GOOD ROADS AND BACK ROADS 127 



nearly bumped into the boys' legs when he reached 
them. 

Where the lane joined the highway Jim stopped 
and looked into the mail box fastened at the top 
of a post, beside 
the road. 

"Won't be 
anything to- 
day," said Hor- 
ace. "This is 
Sunday." 

"Where does 
the mail come 
from.?" asked 
Jim. 

"It comes 
from Milford," 
answered Hor- 
ace. "OldEben 
starts from there 
and go e s to 
Moundville and 
back. He drives 
more'n twenty 
miles every day. 
Guess he's glad to have a rest on Sunday." 

They turned up past the Reynolds farm, the 
opposite way from the direction toward Milford. 
The road was smooth and hard along there. 




Jim Looked into the Mail Box 



128 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

Horace picked up a stick, held it out toward Sppt, 
then threw it as far as he could, down the road 
ahead of them. Spot tore after it, stopping so 
quickly when he got to it that he slid along and 
sent the dirt flying. 

"This is one of our main roads, Jim," said Uncle 
David. ''It's been graveled and is kept up in 




The Road was Smooth and Hard 



pretty good order. It makes a good deal of difi^er- 
ence to a farmer what kind of a road he lives 
on. 

**What are the others like.^" asked Jim. 

"Well, they're a little of everything. Some 
sand, some mud, and some not much except a 
wheel-track. We'll come back over one like 
that." 



GOOD ROADS AND BACK ROADS 129 



They came to a rough, square stone, set up in 
the ground beside the road. There was a letter 
chiselled in the stone on each side, and a date, 

-1899." 

"What is it for, 
Horace?" asked Uncle 
David. 

Horace shook his 
head. 

"Where's your geog- 
raphy, son.?" laughed 
his father. "That's 
the county line. This 
side is Lisbon County, 
where our farm is, and 
the other side is Union. 
You see, for one thing, 
each countydoes its own 
work on the roads ; so 
they have these stones to show where the line runs." 

"Don't think much of Union County roads," 
said Horace, shortly. They had reached a hill, 
and the middle of the road was washed out until it 
was covered with big and little rocks that turned 
under their feet as they walked up. 

"These rocks would be pretty mean for horses, 
wouldn't they?" said Uncle David. "A team 
coming down here with a load might fall and get 
badly hurt." 




They Came to a Square Stone 



I30 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

"Can't they keep the road from washing out this 
way ?" asked Horace. 

"Yes, if they'd round it up, so that the water 
would run off at the sides. It means only a 
little work now and then. The trouble is that 
they never crown it up right in the first place. 




On a Framework Hung Two Iron Kettles 

Then every rain makes a freshet down the middle 
of the road, and pretty soon the surface is all 
gone and there are only the rocks underneath left." 
At a crossroads they left the highway they were 
on and turned to the right. At the corner stood 
an old house that looked as if it had been built a 
long time ago. In the yard there was a frame- 
work, and on this hung two big iron kettles, black 



GOOD ROADS AND BACK ROADS 131 

as coal on the outside. Uncle David told Jim how 
kettles like these were sometimes used for making 
soap, out of wood ashes and the grease saved from 
cooking and butchering. Nowadays only a few 
farms make their own soap, because it is easy and 







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Soon the Road became Sandy 

nearly as cheap to buy it ready made, and the soap 
you can buy is likely to be better than that you can 
make. These two kettles were not used any more 
for soap-making, but for boiling waste potatoes and 
other things to feed to pigs. ** There ought to be 
brick-work built around them," Uncle David said, 
"to hold the heat." 



132 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOW BROOK 



The road they had turned into led from one 
main highway to another, — a "back-road," Uncle 

David called it. 
Before long it 
dipped to a long, 
flat place and 
soon became 
sandy. The 
middle of the 
road was full of 
little hollows, 
where horses had 
stepped. There 
were deep wheel- 
tracks. It was 
hard walking, 
very different 
from the high- 
way that they 
had left. Their 
feet sank into 
the soft sand at 
every step. It 
began to get into 
their shoes. 
Even Spot stopped racing around, and plodded 
along soberly at their heels. The farms on each 
side looked as if not much would grow on them, 
except coarse grass and weeds. 




They Came Homk by a Back-road 



GOOD ROADS AND BACK ROADS 133 

"This is the kind of road that tuckers out a 
horse," said Uncle David. "You can't haul more 
than half a load, and your team gets worn out just 
trying to pull the wheels through the sand." 

"Why don't they fix it up V asked Horace. 

"It would be a hard job," said his father. 
"About all they can do is to haul in a lot of clay, 
and spread it on the sand, and that costs a good 
deal of money. There isn't enough travel to make 
it pay." 

They came home by another back-road that was 
almost grown over with grass. It wasn't sandy 
there. The two wheel-tracks, and the place in 
the middle where the horses stepped, were hard, 
smooth dirt. They were like three paths, worn 
down so deep that the sod between stood up like a 
ridge. The road had never been graveled ; but it 
was used so little that it wasn't worn out. t 

"This is the best road yet to walk on," said Jim. 

"Maybe it is now," commented Horace, "but 
you ought to see it in the spring, after it's been 
raining for a while." 

"Does it get muddy V 

"I guess you'd think so — clear over the tops of 
your shoes." 



CHAPTER XXI 



SCHOOL 

Horace and Jim were ready for school in the 
morning before the girls had finished helping Aunt 

Lucy ; so they 
started on 
ahead. They 
carried their 
lunch in a 
basket, for 
none of the 
children went 
home at 
noon. 

Spot wanted 
to go along. 
The boys sent 
him back 
twice. Then 

They all went into the Schoolhouse opot tan OUt 

through a 
field, up the hill through the woods, and came out 
on the road ahead of the boys. He stayed ahead of 
them after that, and they couldn't chase him back. 

134 




SCHOOL 



135 



Jim was wondering what ttie school would be 
like, and where Horace would be. 

''What room are you in, Horace ?" he asked. 

"What do you mean ?" asked Horace, puzzled. 

"Why, I mean what grade." 

"Oh, I'm in the seventh. — There's only one 
room at our school." 




The Teacher Told them what Seats to take 

Jim was surprised. So they'd all sit together. 
He'd never heard of a school like that. 

When they reached the school yard half a dozen 
children were already on hand, running around, 
laughing and yelling. The game they were playing 
was cross-tag, just the same as Jim had often 
played at his school. In a moment he and Horace 



136 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



were tearing around with the rest. Pretty soon 
Jane and Peggy came along and joined in. Four 
or five other children arrived. All of them carried 
lunches in baskets or boxes. 

Then a woman came out to the door of the 
schoolhouse from somewhere within, and rang a 
bell that she held in her hand. They all straggled 

up to the door and 
walked inside. As 
they went into 
the room the 
teacher called 
them by name, 
one by one, and 
told them what 
seat to take. Jim 
found himself not 
far from Peggy. 
Horace and Jane 
were over toward 
the farther side. Pretty soon books were given 
out and lessons started. 

There were many things around to interest Jim 
and Peggy. It was hard to pay attention to work. 
Some of the desks were large, and some were small. 
There were two tiny ones, no bigger than children's 
play-desks. Overhead, hanging by chains from 
the ceiling, were four big, brass oil-lamps. At the 
back of the room was a round, black stove, with a 




There were Two Tiny Desks 



SCHOOL 



137 



wide top to it, like a collar sticking out flat. The 
stovepipe ran up toward the ceiling, and then 
turned and went across to the wall. 

There were only a few children in each grade. 
In the eighth grade there were only two. While 
the children in one grade were reciting, the others 
were studying or doing other work at their desks, 
except for the smallest 
children, who couldn't be 
doing much unless some 
one was working with 
them. It was a task for 
the teacher to keep track 
of all of them at the same 



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time. 

At noon they all stood 
up and marched to the 
entry, where they had 
left their lunches. Then 
they ran out the door 
and raced across the yard 
to a place where there 
were boards piled up by a fence, beneath two big 
trees. 

When they had eaten their lunches, one of the 
boys went down the road to some bushes and cut 
a forked stick. He picked out a fork that had 
three prongs to it. The main stem he cut off 
about six inches from the forked part. Then he 



138 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

trimmed off the prongs so that each was the same 
length. 

"Let's play ducky," he shouted, as he came back. 
^"Last one's it." 

He set the forked stick on the ground, upside 
down on its three prongs. This was the "ducky." 




At Noon the Children Played "Ducky" 

Each of the children scrambled to find a chip or a 
short piece of straight stick. Jim didn't know 
at first what to look for ; so he was last and had to 

e It. 

The others showed him where to stand, near the 
forked stick. Next they lined up a little way off, 
and each one threw his stick and tried to knock the 
"ducky" over. After that each had to pick up his 
own stick and run back to the place where he'd 
thrown from, before Jim could tag him. But if 



SCHOOL 



139 



the ''ducky" was knocked over, Jim had to set it 
up first before he could chase anybody ; and every- 
one was safe and couldn't be tagged until he had 
picked up his own stick. 

While they were eating dinner, clouds had been 
rolling up, and in the midst of the game a storm 
broke, sending them running into the schoolhouse. 




There were Big Puddles of Water in the Road 



They played in there for a few minutes. After 
that school began again. 

For half an hour the rain beat down. Then all 
at once it stopped, and in a few minutes the sun 
was shining as if nothing had happened. 

When school was dismissed, the four children 
tramped home together. Spot was waiting out- 
side and trailed along with them. It didn't rain 



I40 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

any more. But here and there in the road were 
big puddles of water, with mud between. The 
grass beside the road was dripping. Nobody had 
thought of rain in the morning, when they started, 
so they hadn't worn heavy shoes. Their feet were 
wet and muddy when they arrived at the farm. 

Uncle David told them that night that the 
county school board was thinking of changing the 
plan of the schools, another year. Instead of using 
the small buildings that were scattered here and 
there in the country, they'd have only two or three 
large buildings, with several teachers at each. Big 
busses would stop at the farms, pick up the chil- 
dren, and carry them to the new buildings. "Cen- 
tralized schools," Uncle David called them. 



CHAPTER XXII 
WINTER SUPPLIES 

The week slipped rapidly by, with every day 
filled up and busy. 

Friday afternoon there was a teachers' meeting, 
so the children were dismissed at the noon hour. 




Jim and Peggy Sped across a Field 

They trailed up the road toward Meadowbrook 
Farm for dinner. Spot was with them. He had 
been waiting outside the schoolhouse all morning. 

141 



142 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



Jane and Horace were a little ahead of Peggy 
and Jim. At the bend in the road, near the top of 
the hill, Jim whispered to Peggy, and the two of 
them ducked under a fence, and sped off through a 
field, over a knoll at the top and down on the other 

side. Jim had 
thought of a path 
that Horace had 
told him about. 
They hurried 
along, down 
through a little 
wood, and came 
out by the spring, 
across the brook 
from the house. 
Horace and Jane 
had missed them, 
but thought they 
were coming some- 
where back along 
the road. As they 
turned into the lane they saw Jim and Peggy 
hurrying across the meadow toward the house. 
Horace started to run, but the two children were 
already dashing up the slope and into the kitchen 
door. 

Andrew and Uncle David had been working the 
day before digging and gathering potatoes. 




Andrew had been Digging Potatoes 



WINTER SUPPLIES 



143 



They used a fork that had a straight wooden 
handle and half a ^lozen slender prongs bent at 
right angles to the direction of the handle. This 
fork they would strike into the ground a few inches 
from the stem of a potato plant. Then they would 
jerk up roots and 
ground. With two 
or three more 
strokes and jerks 
they separated the 
potatoes from the 
earth, and rolled 
them out on top, 
to be picked up 
later and put into 
sacks. 

To-day they 
were storing away 
the potatoes and 
other vegetables, 
for use during the 
winter. 

Back of the 
house, where the ground sloped away from the 
barn toward the garden, was a low building that 
Uncle David called the root cellar. It was really 
not a building, for the earth outside was sloped 
up to the top of the low walls, so that the roof 
began at the ground. At one side there was a 





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Back, of the House was a Root Cellar 



144 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

level passage into the bank of earth, with a door 
opening into the cellar. Inside were bins and 
barrels and shelves. It was cool in there, even 
when the day was warm ; and in winter it never 
became quite cold enough to freeze. 

In three of the bins Uncle David and Andy had 
put the potatoes they had dug and gathered. 
They had hauled them in sacks from the field, but 
they turned them out loose in the bins. Another 
bin, a shallow one, was filled with carrots — big 
fat red ones, the same kind that Horace had pulled 
up to feed to Nellie, the pig. Dry earth was 
thrown over these, covering them. A big box 
near by was full of onions. 

The cabbages that were left in the garden came 
next. Part of them they pulled up, shaking the 
dirt from their roots. These were turned upside 
down on shelves, in the root cellar, just as they 
were, roots and all. The rest they cut off, leaving 
the roots in the ground. They broke off the out- 
side leaves and put the white heads away in barrels. 
The turnips in the garden had already been dug 
and stored. There was a big bin of them, next 
to the potatoes. 

Out in the yard, near the summer kitchen, was 
a heap of squashes. Part of them were oval in 
shape and dark green in color ; part were flatter 
and a reddish brown. They carried all to a 
cool, dry room in the cellar under the house, piling 



WINTER SUPPLIES 



145 



them up next to a heap of pumpkins that had been 
stored there a few days before. In another room 
in the cellar, a dark one without any windows, 
Uncle David showed Jim and Peggy long rows of 
barrels full of apples. Some of these would be 
used on the farm during the winter. The greater 




In the Yard was a Heap of Squashes 

part would be hauled to town, after a while, and 
sold. 

A week or two earlier Andrew and Uncle David 
had pulled up the vines in the patch where the 
dried beans for winter were raised. The beans 
were still in their pods, fast to the vines. Plants, 
pods, and all had been stacked up clear of the 
ground, to dry out. 

Andy drove out now and brought in a wagon 
load of the vines. They were dry and crackly, 



146 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

and the pods were knobby where the shape of the 
beans inside showed through. Uncle David had 
sent Jane for a broom, and had swept a part of the 
barn floor clean. Andy heaped up the vines on the 
clean floor. 

Then Uncle David took down his flail, a heavy, 
smooth, round stick, fastened by a short leather 




There were Rows of Barrels full of Apples 

thong to the end of another more slender and 
longer stick that Uncle David held in his hands. 
Swinging this over his head he brought it down, 
whack, so that the shorter stick struck flat on the 
heap of vines. Up and down, up and down, he 
swung it, cracking the pods open, and sending the 
hard, round beans hopping everywhere. 

After a while Andrew raked the vines away and 



WINTER SUPPLIES 



147 



gathered up the beans. He ran them next through 
a wooden machine that had a fan and a screen 
inside, to clean the beans of chaff and dirt. Then 
he carried them to the attic of the summer kitchen, 
and dumped 
them into a 
barrel. 

Uncle David 
hung up his 
flail, and sat 
down on a box 
beside the 
children. He 
pulled out a 
handkerchief 
and mopped 
his face. 

Peggy was 

thinking about the many things that she had seen 
stored away, in the root cellar, and the house 
cellar, and the attic. 

"Uncle David," she said, "you don't have to buy 
much at the stores, do you — things to eat, I mean." 

"Well," said Uncle David, "there are a good 
many things, — sugar, and salt, and flour, and 
coffee, and other knick-knacks of one kind and 
another. But," he added, slowly, "we aim to 
have Meadowbrook Farm raise most of the things 
we eat." 




Uncle David Flailed out the Beans 



CHAPTER XXIII 



WOODCHUCKS AND CORN 

When Uncle David drove to Freeport, the 
Saturday of the following week, to deliver the 
eggs and butter,- 
he took Peggy and 
Jane with him. 
Jane had declared 
that it was their 
turn, and Uncle 
David had ac- 
knowledged that it 
was, according to 
his way of looking 
at it. They ex- 
pected to be back 
by noon, for they 
wouldn't need to 
go around by way 

of TVTilford • nnd ^"^ Boys Hunted up Woodchuck Holes 

besides they were driving Milly instead of big 
Dan. 
After the chores were done Jim and Horace 

148 




WOODCHUCKS AND CORN 149 

called Spot and went out to the back fields to hunt 
up woodchuck holes. The "chucks" had been 
eating some of the corn in the shocks, Andy said. 
He thought that there must be half-a-dozen of 
them around. He had seen Spot tying himself into 
knots chasing one the other day. Spot didn't 
catch him ; but the chuck made Spot hurry. 

"Good thing he didn't," said Horace. "Chucks 
have pretty sharp teeth." 

The boys hunted around half of the morning. 
They found four or five holes in one of the fields. 
Two of them were old ones. But the others 
looked as if they were in use. One had a big heap 
of fresh dirt in front of it, as if it had just been 
dug. There was another fresh one just under 
some fence rails. The boys were almost sure that 
they saw a chuck dodge down there. 

"I'll tell you," said Horace. "There are some 
traps in the woodshed. We'll come out this 
afternoon and set them, and fix a surprise for 
Mr. Chuck." 

They crossed to the field beyond the brook, 
and found Andy there, husking corn. Dan and 
Ben were hitched to a heavy farm wagon, standing 
by one of the shocks. Andy wore leather gloves, 
with round pieces of tin riveted to the palms and 
fingers. He ripped down the husks, tearing them 
loose from the ears first on one side and then on the 
other. Then he snapped off the yellow ear at its 



ISO JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



base, and dropped it into a bushel basket. When 
the basket was full, he dumped it into the wagon. 
Each time he dumped in a basketful he made a 
mark with a bit of chalk on the side of the wagon 
bed. 

Horace and Jim sat down at the edge of a shock, 

and began 
husking. It 
looked easy to 
Jim, when he 
watched Andy 
do it. For a 
while he got 
along all right, 
though he 
couldn't work 
half as fast as 
Andy. The 
husks were 
tough, and it 
was hard to 
start them 
loose, unless 
you could rip through them. That was what 
Andy's tin-studded gloves were for. Pretty soon 
Jim's fingers began to ache. Horace didn't seem to 
mind. His hands were used to work of that kind. 
When the wagon was full, Andy drove away 
with his load to the crib near the barn, and 




|iM Worked at Husking Corn 



WOODCHUCKS AND CORN 



151 



shoveled the ears out of the wagon, tossing them 
through a window of the crib. The walls of the 
crib were built with narrow spaces between the 
boards, so that air would blow through and help 
to keep the corn dry. The posts beneath the 
building had tin over the tops of them, sticking 
out all around. This was to keep rats from climb- 
ing up. 

When Andy 
had gone , 
Horace and 
Jim walked 
over to the 
place near the 
fence where 
Jim had seen 
the squirrel 
the week be- 
fore. They 
sat down 
there to watch for him, Jim at one corn-shock and 
Horace at another. But Spot had been running 
around there, and the squirrel didn't show up. 

Then they hunted for more woodchuck holes 
until they began to get hungry and concluded that 
it was time to go to the house for dinner. 

Uncle David and the girls came back a few 
minutes later. As they reached the lane, Peggy 
jumped out and looked into the mail box. She 



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Andy took a Load to the Corn Crib 



152 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



found a letter addressed to Uncle David. They 
drove up to the house, and. Andy unhitched Milly. 
While the girls were telling their experiences to 
Aunt Lucy, Uncle David sat down in a chair by the 
kitchen window and read his letter. He looked 

up, hesitated a mo- 
ment, and then 
said, quietly, — 

"Well, Peggy- 
girl, are you ready 
to go back home .?" 
"Why, Uncle 
David," she said, 
"what is the mat- 
ter.?" 

"Nothing, Peggy. 
Your father is back 
from the hospital, 
and they are ready 
for you and Jim to 
come home." 

Peggy hardly 
knew what to say. She was so glad to have 
the word about her father — and yet she didn't 
like to think of leaving Meadowbrook Farm. 
Jim and Horace came in, then, and heard the 
news. 

"When will they have to go.?" asked Aunt 
Lucy. 




Jim Waited for the Squirrel 



WOODCHUCKS AND CORN 



153 



"The letter says this afternoon," answered 
Uncle David. "They are to take the train at 
Milford at four o'clock, and their mother will meet 
them at the station, this evening." 

Jane and Horace were deeply disappointed. 
They had thought that Jim and Peggy would be 
there for another week, at least. 

"We were go- 
ing to set traps 
this afternoon," 
said Horace. 

Then he and 
Jane both grew 
silent as they re- 
membered what 
their father and 
mother had said 
to them at the 
beginning about 
having Peggy 
and Jim find out 
all about the 
country. 

"I'll tell you," 
said Uncle 
David. "We'll let them go now if they'll promise 
to come back and see us again at Christmas 
time. 

An hour later they were ready to start. Andy 




They Disappeared around the Bend in 
THE Road 



154 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

had hitched old Dan to the surrey. With Uncle 
David on the front seat they drove down the lane, 
across the bridge, and disappeared around the 
bend at the foot of the big hill, on the road to 
Milford. 



CHAPTER XXIV 
THE ROAD IN WINTER 

For the next two months Peggy sent a letter to 
Jane every week or two, and Jane sent one to 




The Snow was Drifted halfway up the Fences 

Peggy. Jim wrote to Horace only twice. The 
rest of the time he sent his messages in Peggy's 
letters. 

About the first of December a letter arrived 
from Peggy saying that she and Jim were coming 
for a visit the day after Christmas. They couldn't 

iss 



156 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



stay long : only four or five days, or perhaps until 
the day before New Year. Their father was better, 
but he wasn't quite well yet. 

Christmas day came, and brought with it the 
first good snow of the season at Meadowbrook 
Farm. Andy got down the cutter that had been 
put away in the loft of the tool shed for nearly 
a year. Then he took the wheels off the light 
farm wagon, and put on a set of runners. 

It s gomg 
to be a good 
storm," he 
said. "We 
won't go 
wheeling for 
a few days." 
In the after- 
noon Uncle 
David took 
the cutter 
and drove to 
the Sturtevant farm, on the road to Freeport, to 
see about another cow that he was planning 
to buy. He came back in the evening. 

"There are some pretty deep drifts," he an- 
nounced. "It's heaped up halfway to the tops of 
the fences, where the wind gets a sweep at it." 

"Do you suppose it's going to be stormy to- 
morrow .^" asked Jane. 




They put a Blanket on Dan 



THE ROAD IN WINTER 



157 



**No, it's turning colder. Looks as if it will be 
clear." 

Jim and Peggy were coming on the evening 
train. After dinner Uncle David looked at Jane 
out of the corner of his eyes, and asked Horace if 
he didn't want to go along to meet them. 

"Well, 
how about 
me ? ' ' de- 
manded 
Jane. 

' ' W h y , 
sure enough," 
said Uncle 
David, as if 
he hadn't 
thought of 
it b e f o r e, 
"we'll have 
to make 

room tor The Train came Rumbling down the Track 

you, too." 

Andy hitched up Dan to the light wagon and 
fastened in two seats. In the back of the bed he 
put a heavy blanket, to throw over Dan, if they 
had to wait long at Milford. 

An hour and a half later the children and Uncle 
David stood at the end of the platform at the Mil- 
ford station, and watched the train come rumbling 




158 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

and grinding down the track. Before the cars had 
stopped they saw Jim and Peggy through one of 
the windows, making their way to the door. 

Uncle David took Horace with him on the front 
seat, and put Jane, Peggy and Jim on the other. 
He tucked in big, woolly robes around them, with 
extra ones under their feet. Then old Dan started 
up, his bells going *'jongle-ongle," and they drove 
out through the village street. 

They passed the church. Its roof was covered 
with a thick white comforter of snow. The trees 
in front of it were plastered white all up and down 
one side of their trunks. A man was driving a 
pair of horses along the sidewalk, drawing behind 
them a V-shaped wooden plow. It dragged along, 
shoving the snow out to each side, leaving a smooth 
path behind it. There were handles on the rear 
of the plow, but the man rode standing up on the 
front part of it, balancing himself easily, some- 
times tipping back a little, sometimes leaning 
forward. 

They went down the short hill at a trot, old 
Dan sending a ball of snow flying from his feet 
against the front end of the sleigh. A cutter 
passed them, with a top on it like a buggy. Some 
one inside of it called out "Hello there, Jim." 

''That's Henry Reynolds," said Horace. 

They turned into the long level road, where the 
fields stretch away to right and left. The sun was 



THE ROAD IN WINTER 



159 



almost down, making the clouds in the west look 
like dark masses of fleece, with silvery edges. 

Soon it began to get dark. They passed a 
corner, and saw a dog with long ears come slowly 




The Sun was almost down 

out of his box to watch them go by. Next there 
was a schoolhouse at a fork in the road. Dan 
plodded slowly up a hill. The wind came over the 
top and nipped at their faces. They wound down 
the farther side. 

Almost before they knew it, they turned into the 
lane at Meadowbrook Farm. 



CHAPTER XXV 
A WINTER MORNING 

The farm looked strange to Jim and Peggy when 
they went outside next morning. 

Everything was blanketed in snow. The wood- 
pile was covered with it. You could see the shape 
of the top pieces of wood through the blanket. In 
the garden there were just a few old, broken corn- 
stalks sticking up through. 

Andy had been out with a shovel and a broom, 
and brushed the blanket aside in front of the kitchen 
door. He had swept a path from there around to 
the summer kitchen and the woodshed, out to the 
barn, across to the tool-shed, and over to the 
chicken house. * 

Outside of the path there were tracks here and 
there in the white blanket. Jim and Peggy could 
see where Dan had gone by pulling the sleigh after 
him, where Spot had been racing around, and the 
trails that the turkeys had made. The turkeys 
were nowhere in sight now. But in a moment 
the children spied Brownie and Jerry, on the 
steps of the summer kitchen, where there wasn't 

1 60 



A WINTER MORNING 



i6i 



any snow. Peggy ran back into the kitchen and 
found some crusts of bread for them. 

When the children went into the barn everything 
looked familiar again. There was the wall of hay, 
with the ladder running 
up toward the roof, — 
though the wall wasn't 
as high or as long as it 
had been. Back where 
the stalls were, Dan and 
Ben and Milly stuck 
their noses out. Peter 
came sauntering along 
from the tool-room, 
where he was still busy 
catching mice. 

In the wing of the 
barn, where the cows 
were kept, Belinda and 
the rest were lined up, 
with their heads through 
the square, wood frames. 
There was no green 

pasture outside, now, for them to graze on. They 
spent most of the time in the barn, except when 
Andy let them out into the feed yard, to exercise. 

Horace and Jane came out to the barn, and 
joined them. Andy took Ben out of his stall, put 
the harness on him, and hitched him to the sled. 




In the Barn was the Wall of 
Hay and the Ladder 



i62 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

He was going to the Sturtevant place to bring 
back the cow that Uncle David had bought. 

Jane and Peggy walked over to the chicken 
house, to gather the eggs and say good morning to 
Hiram, the white rooster. Jane had a little round 
basket with her. 




The Cows were Lined up in the Wing of the Barn 

"You're not going to get the eggs in that little 
basket, are you ?" asked Peggy. 

Jane laughed. 

"Hens don't lay much this time of year," she 
said. "I think they must get tired in winter. 
Half of ours aren't laying at all, and the rest don't 
seem very busy." 



A WINTER MORNING 



163 



"Maybe that's why Mamma said that eggs cost 
so much at the grocery last week," remarked 
Peggy. 

Jim and Horace took Spot with them and went 
down to the brook. Jim looked into the top of 
the box over the ram. It was 
still chugging away. 

Just beyond the bridge the 
boys found tracks in the snow, 
leading along the brook. There 
were two round tracks, and, 
just ahead of them, two longer 
ones ; next a space of two or 
three feet ; and then another set 
of round tracks and long ones. 

"Look where a rabbit's been 
hopping," said Horace. "He 
wasn't scared, either. See, he 
made only short jumps." 

"Why are the tracks shaped 
like that ?" inquired Jim. 

"The little round tracks are 
his front feet, and the long ones are his hind feet. 
He always sets his hind feet down ahead of his 
front ones when he hops." 

"Did you get any of the woodchucks .^" asked 
Jim. "You know — the ones we were going to 
set traps for, the day I went back home." 

Horace shook his head. 




Jane had a Little 
Basket 



i64 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

"I think they moved away. Or else Spot 
scared them. I got a skunk, though," he added. 
"Caught him at a hole under the chicken house 
fence." 

They walked on down the brook. Here and 
there the snow was halfway to their knees, where 





1/ 


p 




L 





The Boys P'ound the Tracks of a Rabbit 

the wind had drifted little hollows full of it. The 
bushes were bent over with a heavy, white crust 
frozen to their branches. 

The surface of the brook was covered with ice. 
They could walk on it almost anywhere. But 
they had to watch out when they came to places 
where the water ran fast over stones, or down 
over a log. In one place like that there was no 
ice at all. 

Spot had disappeared. They ran across his 
tracks beside the bank of the brook. Soon they 



A WINTER MORNING 165 

heard him barking, somewhere up the slope above 
them. 

"Let's see what he's found," said Horace. 

They hurried through the meadow, chmbed the 
fence, and crossed the field where the corn had 
been. At the farther side Spot was digging away 
in the snow at the foot of a pile of rocks. When 





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Spot had Left his Trail in the Snow 

he saw the boys coming he barked and dug all the 
harder, sending snow and leaves flying out between 
his hind legs. 

There was a fence beside the rocks. On the 
snow along the fence, and all around the rocks, 
were little tracks, a good deal like those that the 
rabbit made, but much smaller. Some of them 
led toward the foot of a tree near by. 

Horace looked up into the tree. Then he walked 
around to another side and looked up from there. 



i66 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

''Spot," he called. "You foolish dog. There 
he is, up in the tree." 

Jim looked, and pretty soon made out a red 
squirrel, sitting quietly on a big limb, close to the 
trunk. 

They had a great time persuading Spot to give 
up digging. He couldn't get it out of his head that 
there was a squirrel in the rocks, waiting to be dug 
out. 

Finally they induced him to come on with them, 
back toward the house. 



CHAPTER XXVI 
THE ICE HARVEST 

"Boys," said Uncle David, a day or two later, 
"don't you want to go along and watch us cut ice ?" 

"Isn't the snow pretty deep on it ?" asked Aunt 
Lucy. 




The Snow Scraper was Lying on the Bank. 

"Yes, there is a good deal," Uncle David as- 
sented. "But it scrapes off clean. It isn't as 
bad as when it thaws." 

The big wagon bed had been shifted over to a 

167 



i68 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



pair of heavy runners. Andy brought out Dan 
and Ben and hitched them up. He and Uncle 
David with the two boys drove away to a pond 
about two miles from Meadowbrook Farm. 
They came out on the pond at a place where the 

bank was low, so 
that the horses and 
sled could easily be 
driven on to the 
ice. Two other 
teams and three 
men were already 
there. One of the 
teams was hitched 
to a wagon on 
wheels instead of 
a sled. Jim knew 
one of the men — 
Mr. Reynolds, 
Henry's father. 
The other two he 
had seen at a 
neighboring place 
the Sunday afternoon Uncle David took them for 
a walk. 

Where they were at work the snow had been 
scraped off the top of the ice. It was piled up in 
heaps near by. The scraper was lying on the bank. 
The surface of the ice was scored with long, narrow 




One of the Men Was Sawing Ice 



THE ICE HARVEST 



169 



furrows. Part of these ran one way, and part 
crossed them at right angles, so that the ice was 
marked off in squares. 

At one end of the rows of squares there was a 
space of open water. In the water several ice- 
cakes were floating around. A long wooden boom 




He Broke the Cakes apart with the Prongs 

was lying in the water, fastened at one end with a 
rope. It kept the floating cakes close to the edge 
of the ice nearest the wagons. 

One of the men was working with a big saw. It 
had coarse teeth, and a cross-bar handle at one 
end. He sawed up and down with it, along the 
two end furrows scored in the ice. Next he picked 
up a heavy iron tool, with four flat prongs on the 



I70 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



end, and jabbed it down here and there in the first 
cross-furrow. A row of cakes broke off. Then 
he used the prongs to break the cakes apart, and 
sent them bobbing and floating out into the water. 
Mr. Reynolds stood at the edge of the ice, hold- 
ing a pole in his 
hands. On the 
end of the pole was 
a spike, sticking 
out at right angles. 
The ice at Mr. 
Reynolds' feet was 
cut away a little, 
so that there was 
a shallow, sloping 
place, running 
down into the 
water. Swinging 
the pole out he 
struck the spike 
at the end of it 
into a cake of ice 
and pulled it over 
to the sloping place. Then he tipped the cake 
down and up a moment, and with a quick jerk 
pulled it out on to the surface of the ice. 

Andy and Uncle David took a hand at loading 
the wagon. They set a skid, so that it sloped from 
the surface of the ice to the wagon bed. Each of 




Mr. Reynolds Pulled the Cakes out 



THE ICE HARVEST 



171 



them hooked a pair of tongs into a cake of ice, one 
on each side. Then both pulled and slid it up 
into the bed. 

All of the men had taken off their overcoats. 
The work kept them warm. But Horace and Jim 
began to feel cold. They jumped up and down and 
knocked their feet together. 



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They Loaded the Wagon with Ice 

" Better build a little fire, boys," suggested Andy. 

So they found some bits of dry bark and some 
sticks, and stacked them up beside an old log 
lying on the bank. Uncle David came over and 
started it going. 

"Uncle David," said Jim. "What do you do 
with all the ice .?" 



172 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

"You mean this that we're cutting here ?" 

"Yes." 

"It's just for our own use : for Mr. Reynolds and 
the others, and for Meadowbrook Farm. We aim 
to work together, so that each one helps the others, 
till we get all each one needs." 

After a while they filled up the big sled that 
Dan and Ben were hitched to, and drove back to 
the farm. 

The next day Jim and Peggy went back to the 
city. Their visit had been a short one. Jane 
and Horace were sorry to see them go. Before 
they went Jane whispered in her mother's ear : 

"Can't Peggy stay a little longer ?" she asked, — 
"just over New Year's .?" 

"I'm afraid not," said Aunt Lucy. 

Horace pulled his father to one side. But Uncle 
David shook his head. 

"It would be lots of fun, Sonny," he said, "but 
— wait a minute — " 

He walked over and talked a moment with Aunt 
Lucy. She smiled and nodded. 

"I'll tell you, children," he said. "We'll ask 
Peggy and Jim to come for another visit in the 
spring, as soon as school's out. And this time," 
he added, "we want them to bring their father and 
mother with them." 



CHAPTER XXVII 

SPRING 

The winter slowly came to an end. The wheat 
in the field back of the barn looked fresh and green 




The Cows were Ti rm-d di t into the Pasture 

as soon as the snow was gone. Here and there in 
other fields the grass began to turn green. Down 
by the brook the buds on pussy-willows sprouted 
out into soft, gray tufts, like tiny rabbit-paws. 
Queer, slender blossoms came out on the poplar 
trees. Robins commenced to walk around the 

173 



174 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

slope by the garden, hunting for worms. Jerry's 
feathers looked fresh and bright, 'as if he'd bought 
a new coat. A pair of bluebirds fought with 
sparrows, to see who should occupy the little 
wooden house nailed to a limb of the big apple-tree. 
Jane put thirteen eggs under Speckle, the hen, 




Uncle David Harrowed the Garden 

and Speckle settled down for a long stay in her 
nest, to keep the eggs warm and hatch out a 
family of chicks. Horace went fishing, at the 
old mill. There were three or four new, little 
calves in the barn. Andy let Dan and Ben out in 
front of the barn, and Ben lay down and rolled 
clear over, back and forth, six times. 

*'That makes him worth six hundred dollars," 
Andy declared. 

The cows were turned out into the pasture 



SPRING 



175 



across the brook. Belinda promptly found a 
place in the fence where she could squeeze through. 
She started at once for the woods, as if she were 
going to catch a train at Milford, Horace wasn't 
on hand this time, but Andy saw her. Spot saw 
her, too. Then Andy had to run fast enough to 
catch both Spot and Belinda. 




Jane Helped in Planting the Garden 



Uncle David and Andrew hauled out half-a- 
dozen loads of manure and spread it on the garden. 
The ground there drained out quickly in the spring. 
That helped to get the soil into good shape early, 
while some of the fields were still too wet to be 
worked. The garden sloped toward the southeast, 
too, so the sun warmed it up quickly. 



176 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



A few days later Andy plowed the piece and 
harrowed it. Then he and Uncle David, with Jane 
and Horace for helpers, took a ball of cord, laid out 
the rows for the early vegetables, and made the 
first planting of seeds. 

Jane asked Horace to spade up her flower garden 

for her, between the 
porch and the drive- 
way. Aunt Lucy 
and she had bought 
the seeds for it in 
Freeport, early in 
the spring. As soon 
as the ground was 
ready she dug a 
trench along one 
side of the plot, and 
planted a row of 
sweet peas. Next 
to these was a bed 
for nasturtiums. 
In the house she had already started several 
boxes of plants that needed to grow indoors for a 
while and then be moved outdoors. Some of these 
she transplanted now. The others would have 
to wait until warm weather, when there was no 
more danger of frosts. 

Before long the days grew pretty busy for every- 
body. As Uncle David said, "The day lasts only 




Sweet Peas were Planted 



SPRING 177 

from sun-up to dark, but the jobs keep on growing 
all day and all night." 

Horace and Jane usually got back from school 
about four o'clock. From that time until supper 
there were a dozen things to be looked after. 
Horace declared one afternoon that there were 
"about a million," but that was when he and 
Henry Reynolds had been talking about going 
fishing. 

Speckle had brought out her family of chicks, — 
eleven of them. Jane watched them and fed them, 
until they were old enough to look out for them- 
selves. In other coops in the orchard there were 
other little families, scurrying out and in, scratch- 
ing and hunting for bugs, while the old mother 
hen clucked and scolded. 

As soon as the first tiny plants began to appear 
in the garden, the weeds, too, started up. Horace 
had to get after them. Part of the work he could 
do with the hoe, and that went along pretty fast ; 
but part he had to do on his hands and knees, 
pulling up the weeds carefully so as not to disturb 
the plants, and that part didn't go so fast. 

All the time the sun kept getting higher in the 
sky each day, the leaves grew larger on the trees, 
and the grass kept growing greener. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 
PLANTING-TIME 

As soon as the ground had dried out enough, 
Andy set to work plowing the field across the 
brook. When he had it about half done, a big 
rain storm drove him in. Then for a week it 
rained just enough to keep the ground so wet that 
Andy couldn't finish. In the afternoon the sun 
would shine, but next morning it would be raining 
again. Or, if the sun came out in the morning, 
there would be a storm in the afternoon. 

Andy fretted and complained. "Looks as if it 
was going to keep on raining for a month," he 
grumbled. ** First thing we know it'll be summer, 
before we get that piece plowed." 

*'Why don't you try it anyhow?" said Horace. 

"Then I'd have a pretty how-de-do, now would- 
n't I," snorted Andy. "If you go on that ground 
when it's wet, you won't get rid of the clods till 
next winter." 

Finally there were good days of warm, drying 
sun, and Dan and Ben finished their rounds. The 
next day Andy began harrowing. He used a disk 

178 



PLANTING-TIME 



179 



harrow at the start. It was a good deal like the 
cutaway that Jim had seen Mr. Reynolds using, 
but it wasn't as large, and there were no notches 
cut in the edge of the ^isks. Back and forth, and 
criss-cross up and down, Dan and Ben pulled the 




Andy Went over the Field with a Spike-tooth Harrow 

harrow, stirring up and smoothing out all the 
ridges left by the plow. 

Next Andy went over the field with the spike- 
tooth. There wasn't any seat on this harrow for 
Andy to ride on. He walked along back of it. 
The harrow was a low, wide, iron framework, set 
every little way with long iron spikes that stuck 
down beneath. There were handles on it that 
you could move forward or back. When you 



i8o JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



moved these it made all the spikes point straight 
down or slope toward the rear. 

There was one part of the field, toward the lower 
corner, where water had s1;ood in winter. When 
Andy had finished with the spike-tooth, the 

earth was still 

lumpy in this 

part. Many 

of the lumps 

were hard, — 

almost like 

stones. The 

spikes didn't 

break these 

up. They 

only pushed 

them aside, 

and stirred 

them around. 

To get this place into good order Andy went 

over it with a drag. The drag was made of four 

heavy planks bolted to cross-pieces. The edge of 

each plank was set a little way over the one next 

to it, like shingles on the roof of a house. On top 

of the drag were stones, to weight it down. As 

Dan and Ben pulled the drag along, the planks 

crushed the hard lumps, mashing them into bits. 

Finally the field was ready for planting. The 

ground was mellow and crumbly. You could push 




The Drag was Made of Heavy Planks 



PLANTING-TIME 



i«i 



your foot down into it almost to the top of your 
shoe. 

Uncle David hired an extra team of horses for a 
day or two, with a man to drive them. There was 
a farm half a mile away that was willing to spare 
them. 




They Planted the Piece to Ensilage Corn 

"They won't do as much work as Dan and Ben," 
said Andy, "but I suppose they'll help out." 

The new team went to work on the field that 
Uncle David had plowed in the fall. It was ready 
now to be harrowed. As soon as it was in good 
order Uncle David got out the corn-planter. 
Then he and the new man planted the piece to 



i82 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

ensilage corn. They took a good deal of care to 
get the first row straight. After that the planter 
marked out the next row each time. But the 
driver had to be careful to follow the mark. 

Meanwhile Andy brought out the drill from the 
tool shed, and seeded part of the field that he had 




Andy Seeded down the Field across the Brook 



been harrowing, across the brook. The drill had 
two wheels, with a long box, cross-wise, just over 
the axle. This was where Andy put the seed. 
Beneath the box was a row of eight pipes, leading 
down. Each pipe ended in a sort of iron boot. 
The boots ran through the ground, with their 
bottoms a few inches below the surface, and the 
seed fed down through them. 



PLANTING-TIME 



183 



There had been no rain now for a week or more. 
The sun was hot, and the top of the ground was 
dried out. So Andy took Dan and Ben and rolled 
the field, to make the moisture, farther down in the 
ground, come to the surface, and help the seed to 
sprout. 

Before long the plants where the seeder had 




The Roller Made the Moisture Come to the Surface 

been were through the ground. A rainy day came 
along, and set them sprouting up in a hurry. If 
you stood off at one end of the field and looked up 
the slope, you could see each row. The wheat was 
growing fast. The corn was up. 

The weeds, too, kept shooting up everywhere. 
They kept Andy busy with the cultivator and 
made Horace work hard with his hoe. 



CHAPTER XXIX 



UNCLE JOHN AND JIM 

Toward the end of May the school at the fork 
of the road closed for the summer vacation. 
There were so many things to be done on the farms 

at that time of 
year that the 
older children 
were needed at 
their homes. 

Peggy wrote 
that their 
schools in the 
city would close 
in about three 
weeks. She and 
Jim would finish 
their work the 
fourteenth of 
June. A few 
days later Uncle 
John, Peggy's 
father, received a letter from Uncle David. In 
the same mail word came from Aunt Lucy for 




Near the Bridge a Cow Stood in the 
Water 



UNCLE JOHN AND JIM 



185 



Peggy's mother, Aunt Emily. There were more 
letters and answers. Finally it was arranged that 
Jim and Peggy, with their father and mother, 
should come to Meadowbrook Farm soon after 
school closed, for a two weeks' visit. 

They came one clear, warm day, the last of 
June. Uncle David drove to Milford with Milly 
to meet them. They had taken the morning 




Around the Corner They Found Spot and Tag 



train, reaching Milford at eleven o'clock. Almost 
before the train had pulled out, Milly was headed 
toward home, and soon she had turned the corner 
into the long level stretch. The sun shone brightly, 
making black shadows on the road where the trees 
arched overhead. In the marshy place by the 
bridge a cow stood in the water, switching her tail 
to drive away flies. 

Just before they reached the top of the long hill 



i86 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

Jane and Horace met them. Uncle David stopped 
the horse, and Jim and Peggy jumped out to walk 
down the hill with the other children. Near where 
they stopped Uncle John pointed out a farmhouse 
to Aunt Emily. 

"That's the place," he said, "I haven't seen it 
since I was a boy." 




Andy Hitched Dan and Ben to the Cultivator 

Dinner was all ready when they arrived. Han- 
nah Wiggin had come over, to help Aunt Lucy. 

As soon as dinner was finished, Uncle John 
slipped into a pair of overalls, and found an old 
straw hat. 

"Come on, Jim," he said, "let's see the farm." 

Around the corner of the woodshed they found 
Spot and Tag. 



UNCLE JOHN AND JIM 



187 



"Hie, there, Spot," called Jim, "Hello, Tag." 

Both dogs got up, wagging their tails. But it 
was a warm day, and they were too lazy and com- 
fortable to go along. 

Andy had backed the cultivator out of the tool- 
shed and was getting ready to spend the afternoon 
fighting weeds in the cornfield. They watched 
him while he 
brought out 
Dan and Ben, 
and hitched 
them up. 

"These are 
two nice 
horses, Mr. 
Harlow," he 
said. 

Uncle John 
looked them 
over. He 
rubbed his hand up and down their noses. 

"What'U they weigh ?" he asked. 

"They weighed twenty-eight hundred this 
spring," Andy replied, "but I think they're a little 
lighter now." He turned to Jim. 

"Did you see our new cow V he asked. 

He tied Dan and Ben to a corner of the tool- 
house, and disappeared into the barn. In a 
moment he came out, leading a big black and 
white Holstein. 




There was a New Holstein 



JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



"We just brought her over this morning," he 
explained. "We traded for her. BeUnda was a 
good milker, but she never could learn what a 
fence was for. If there wasn't any hole for her 
to get through, it seemed as if she'd make one.'* 

At the farther end of 
the orchard Jim and 
Uncle John found a big 
white pig, rooting around 
in front of a low shed, 
inside a wire fence. 

"That looks like Nel- 
lie," said Jim. "I won- 
der where her little pigs 
are. 

"Maybe her family's 
grown up by this time," 
said his father. "Pigs 
grow pretty fast." 

They cam6 back 
through the farmyard, 
and walked down the path to the plank bridge over 
the brook. Jim showed his father the ram and 
the spring, and told him how the brook worked to 
pump the water from the spring to the house. 

A little way beyond they came to a gate, and 
turned into the field that Andy had plowed and 
seeded, earlier in the season. It was all green, 
now, with grass and clover. 




Jim Found a Big White Pig 



UNCLE JOHN AND JIM 189 

"This is the place where the corn was," said 
Jim. "Over there's the tree where I saw the 
squirrel." 

He led the way across the field. The clover was 
higher than their shoe-tops, and felt soft beneath 
their feet. Uncle John stooped and ran his hand 
through the thick leaves. 

"It's a fine stand," he said. "You don't always 
see clover as good as this." 

At the fence, on the farther side, they came to a 
pile of rocks. There were bits of old shells lying 
about. Jim looked up into the hickory tree. 

"There he is," he said. "Old Spot never got 
him, after all." 



CHAPTER XXX 

ACROSS THE FIELDS 

Jim and his father walked on alongside the fence 
until they came to the corner of the field. There 
was a sort of gate there, leading into another piece. 
But the gate didn't swing. It was made of three 




There was a Set of Bars at the Corner 

long boards that rested at each end on cross-pieces 
nailed between a pair of posts, set close together. 
The boards were loose, so that you could slide 
them out and lay them to one side if you wanted to 
drive through, 

190 



ACROSS THE FIELDS 



191 



"This is what we used to call a set of bars," said 
Uncle John. "I remember there was a set where 
you went into our back pasture. Only, they were 
made of poles, instead of boards like these. They 
were pretty heavy to lift down and put up again." 

"Where was 

your place, 
Dad.?" asked 
Jim. 

"Why, don't 
you know I 1 1 
was that farm 
at the top of the 
hill, where Hor- 
ace and Jane 
met us yester- 
day." 

"I didn't 
know you used 
to live there," 
said Jim, sur- 
prised. 

"Yes," said Uncle John, "we lived there until 
I was about nine or ten — about as big as you. 
Then my daddy sold the place, -and we moved to 
the city." 

Uncle John climbed up on the bars, and sat on 
the top one. Jim climbed up beside him. Beyond 
them was a low stone wall. On top of it were long 




The Old Bars, Made of Poles 



192 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

poles held in place by other shorter cross-poles set 
in the ground, on either side of the wall, and rest- 
ing against it. 

"That's an old-time fence, Jim," said Uncle 
John. "But it isn't as queer as the stump fences 
that we used to have, in some places." 

" What do you mean by stump-fences ? " asked Jim. 




On Top of the Wall were Long Poles 

"They were made of stumps turned over on 
their sides," explained his father. "The roots 
were fast to the stump. When you set them close 
together all these roots stuck up in the air and 
crossed each" other and made a sort of fence. Then 
you filled in any holes with rails or logs." 

They watched a big, black crow go flapping 
along overhead. A sparrow was flying just behind 
the crow, darting at him first from one side and 
then from the other. 



ACROSS THE FIELDS 



193 



"See the sparrow chasing the old corn-thief," 
said Uncle John. 

After a while they climbed down on the farther 
side of the bars and walked across a wide pasture. 
At the other end men were at work putting 
up a wire fence. The posts for the fence were 
already set and braced. One of the men had an 



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Some Men were Putting up a Wire Fence 

iron clamp that he fastened to the wire. Then 
he rested a part of the clamp against a post, and 
pulled on a handle that stuck out from the clamp. 
That stretched the wire tight while another man 
drove in staples to fasten it in place. The wires 
near the ground were closer together than those 
farther up, and there were cross wires, running up 
and down, every two or three feet. 

"That makes a good fence," said Uncle John. 



194 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



"Might as well put up a good one while you're 
about it," replied one of the men. 

"Uncle David has some fences like that," said 
Jim, as they walked away. "He has some good 
gates, too. One of them, up by the barn, has a 
stone post at the end of it that's higher'n your 

head." 

They came 
back along 
the bank of 
the brook. 
Jim led the 
way to a 
fallen tree 
where they 
could cross. 

"Any fish 
in here, 
son ?" asked 
Uncle John. 
"Sure," said Jim. "Don't you remember I told 
you about the fish we caught last fall ? That was 
down below here. There's an old dam down there." 
"Let's go and see it," said his father. 
So they crossed back over the fallen log, and 
tramped on down to the dam. Jim pointed out the 
spot where they had fished first, where the shiners 
ate off all their bait ; and the other place, at the 
dam, where they caught their fish. 




The Gate with the High Stone Post 



ACROSS THE FIELDS 195 

There was a pole, without any hue on it, leaning 
against the side of the old mill. 

"There's my pole," said Jim. "I left it there 
when we started back home." 

Uncle John looked up and down the brook, and 
chuckled to himself. 

"I guess I know the place, after all," he said. 
"My daddy brought me here fishing when I was a 
kid." 



CHAPTER XXXI 

AUNT EMILY AND PEGGY 

After Jim and his father had started for their 
walk, Peggy and Jane took Aunt Emily to show 
her the chickens and little pigs, and the calves. 




Brownie and Jerry were on the Cellar Door 

They stopped first to hunt up Brownie and Jerry, 
and found them on the other side of the house, 
sitting on the cellar door. As usual, Jerry was 
suspicious. He wanted to get down from the door. 
But it was too high to jump from the upper end, 
where he was sitting, and the visitors were stand- 

196 



AUNT EMILY AND PEGGY 



197 



ing at the lower end. All he could do was to say 
"Quirk-quirk/' 

Lying in the sun, by the wheels of the old 
buggy, in the tool-house, were seven or eight little 
white pigs. They squealed and grunted, and ran 
away. 

"Where's Nellie.^" asked Peggy, as they came 
near to a shed 
that had boards 
fastened across 
the doorway. 

'' Who is 
Nellie .?" inquired 
Aunt Emily. 

"Why, don't 
you know.? 
She's the big 
white pig that 
always stood up 
by the door in 
that shed, and 
hung her leg over 
the boards. 
Those were her 
little pigs that 
we saw back there by the buggy wheel." 

Jane laughed. "Why, Peggy," she said, "Nellie's 
pigs are all grown up. We sold them last week." 

Peggy was astonished. 



|fl^/;r-''<^^w^^_^^j3 




^^C^... ""^^iSfe— 


W^'W^"' 







There were Several Families of Little 
Chicks 



198 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

"Well, those pigs are just like them, anyhow," 
she declared. 

They looked over the boards into the shed. 
Another big pig, almost like Nellie but not quite 
as white, was lying on the floor. She had a family 
of very small pigs of her own. 

There were other families of youngsters near by. 
Scattered through the orchard were several small 
houses, each about two feet high. Some had 




Hiram was in One of the Chicren Yards 

shingles on the roof, some had tarred paper, and 
one had white oilcloth. Around each house a 
dozen or more little chicks were scampering, while 
an old hen stood guard over them. 

*'I see Hiram," said Peggy. 

She ran into one of the chicken yards and 
"shooed" a white rooster toward the fence. They 
waited for him to crow, but he wouldn't perform. 
When they turned to go away he raised his head, 
flapped his wings, and crowed twice. 

"Is Susan here yet .^" asked Peggy. 



AUNT EMILY AND PEGGY 199 

"She's in the pasture," said Jane. "Do you 
want to walk out there, Aunt Emily ?" 

Aunt Emily was willing. "I know who Susan 
is," she said. 

Jane led the way through the gate, down the 
lane, and through the bars into the pasture. 




Bhyond a Knoll were Three Calves 

Beyond a little knoll they found three calves. 
One of them was Susan. But she had grown 
so much that Peggy hardly knew, her. She 
was taller, and rounder, and her horns had be- 
gun to show. She wasn't tied to a pole any 
more, but wandered along with the other calves, 
eating grass. 

There was a tree on the knoll, and a pleasant, 



200 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



shady place. Aunt Emily and the girls sat there 
for a long time, watching the calves and talking 
about the farm and the school, and the things that 
they had been doing. When they got back to the 
house the afternoon was nearly over. 

As they stepped up on the porch Aunt Lucy 

came out with a 
basket, on her 
. way to the gar- 
den to get vege- 
tables for supper. 

Can t 1 go r 
asked Peggy. 

''All right," 
said Aunt Lucy, 
"you and Jane 
bring in some 
things." 

The girls 
crossed into the 
garden and 
walked along the 
rows. P eggy 
found a bed of 
little red radishes, and gathered a bunch of them. 
Jane added two big heads of lettuce. There were 
bean-vines close by, some of them full of clusters 
of long, yellow pods. They filled one end of the 
basket with a heap of these. 




l'ia.(;Y Found a Btu of Radishes 



AUNT EMILY AND PEGGY 



20 1 



"Let's pick some strawberries," said Jane. 

She ran into the house and brought out another 
basket. The two girls got down on their hands 
and knees, among the strawberry vines, and hunted 
out the ripest and darkest berries, hidden away 
beneath the leaves. 

Peggy carried the- berries to the porch, to show 




Fhey Hunted for the Ripest Berries 



them to her mother. Then she and Jane took 
them into the house to hull them^ Aunt Lucy and 
Hannah Wiggin began getting supper. 

After a time Peggy came out and joined Aunt 
Emily on the porch. She sat down on the arm 
of her mother's chair, and a moment later slipped 
into her lap. 

They watched the twilight deepen across the 



202 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

meadow. Somewhere near the barn they could 
hear Jim and Uncle John talking together. 

"I wonder," said Aunt Emily, "how my Peggy 
would like to live on a farm .^" — 

"I surely would," said Peggy. 



CHAPTER XXXII 



OLD AND NEW 



When Jim and his father came back to the farm- 
yard, they found Uncle David and Horace at work 
setting up a post at one side of the open space 
between the house and the 
barn. On top of the post was 
an iron bracket holding a glass 
globe. , 

"What do you think of our 
new light?" said Horace to 
Jim. 

"What's it for.?" asked Jim. 

"Haven't you seen the new 
outfit V said Uncle David. 

He led them around to the 
farther side of the house, where 
there was a short, steep bank. 
In the side of the bank a shed 
had been built, with the roof 
coming down almost to the 
ground, like a root-cellar. On 
the side next to the slope 
there was a door. 

203 




There was a Post with 
A Globe on Top 



204 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



Horace opened the door. It was dark inside, 
but when Jim and his father stepped nearer they 
could see a thing Hke a tall iron can, on legs. The 
can was in three sections. A small pipe led from 

it through the 
wall, into the 
ground. 

"It's a machine 
to make gas for 
lights," said Uncle 
David, "an acety- 
lene generator, 
they call it. We're 
going to pipe it 
all through the 
house and barn." 
He explained 
how water was 
put into one part 
of the can, and a 
chemical into 
another. When 
the two came together the gas was formed. The 
machine would regulate itself, except for cleaning 
and filling once in a while. 

The boys wandered out through the orchard, to 
look up some little pigs. Uncle John and Uncle 
David walked back to the barn and sat down on the 
grassy slope, near the big doors. 




In the Bank a Shf.d Had Been Built 



OLD AND NEW 



205 



"The gas lights won't entirely take the place of 
oil, will they," remarked Uncle John. 

"No," said Uncle David, "we'll have to use 
lanterns as we always have, around parts of the 
barn and other buildings. I expect we'll always 
have one hanging on the old 
nail there by the door. Of 
course the gas will be handy 
in the house, because It makes 
so much more light than a 
lamp. But more than likely 
we'll use our oil lamps a good 
deal at that, now and then. 
I don't think Jane will get 
out of practice at filling them." 

" How are electric light plants 
for farms.?" asked Uncle John. 

"I think they're first rate," 
said Uncle David. "They cost 
a good deal to put in, I un- 
derstand, but probably they're 
the best in some ways. Even 
at that, you'll have to use an 
oil lantern for getting around at nights : such as 
crossing a dark field, or looking up the stock." 

The cows came walking up slowly through the 
pasture. The sun was getting low. It would 
soon be milking-time. Horace and Jim finished 
their inspection of the pigs, and joined Uncle 




A Lantern Will Always 
Be Needed 



2o6 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



David and Uncle John on the grassy slope near 
the barn. 

"Well," said Uncle John, "I suppose that lots 



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Oil Lamps for Jane to Fill 

of things are changed and improved around a 
farm since I was a boy." 

"I don't know that there are so many changes," 
said Uncle David. "We have pretty much the 
same farm tools. That cultivator over there isn't 



OLD AND NEW 



207 



much different from the one my father used in his 
potato patch. It's made about as it used to be, 
and has about the same shovels to stir up the dirt 
and discourage the weeds. I think harvesting 
machinery's changed more than anything else." 




When the Wheat is Ripe the Reaping Begins 



"Harvest was always a busy time," remarked 
Uncle John. 

"It is yet," said Uncle David. "There'll be a 
gang of eight or ten men here for two or three 
days, with a traction engine and a big thresher. 
We don't raise very much grain, and they'll rush 
it through pretty fast." 



2o8 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

"When is harvest, Uncle David?" asked Jim. 

*'It comes before many weeks now. As soon as 
the wheat's ripe we'll be running the reaper 
through it. Then we'll shock it up. Pretty soon 
after that the threshing crew will be around. 
They'll set up back of the barn, and we'll haul in 




Threshing is a Busy Timk 



the grain, as fast as the teams can fetch it. Two 
men will feed it into the thresher, and before you 
know it the wheat'll be in the bags and the blower'll 
have the straw piled up in a big stack." 

Uncle David disappeared into the barn to begin 
the evening chores. Horace went to the house, 
to carry in firewood for Aunt Lucy. 

Uncle John and Jim sat on the grass, and 
watched the shadows creep across the meadow, 
toward the brook. A turkey stalked by, on his 



OLD AND NEW 209 

way to join the jest of the flock at their roost. Tag 
wandered up and lay down beside them. On the 
porch they could hear the voices of Peggy and Aunt 
Emily. A light shone in the kitchen, and through 
the windows they could see Aunt Lucy and Hannah 
Wiggin and Jane getting supper. 

"Jim," said Uncle John, "would you like to live 
on a farm ?" 

"You bet I would," said Jim. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 



HAY MAKING 

A FEW days later Uncle David started mowing 
one of the fields. The grass wds higher than Jim's 
knees, though 
it wasn't a 
heavy stand. 
The heavier, 
clover hay 
woul d be 
mowed the 
next week. 
Andy backed 
the mowing 
machine out 
of the tool 
shed. It had 
wide iron 
wheels, with 
cross-pieces 
on the rims. 

"Those are 

to make it take hold," said Andy. '*You see 
the wheels are geared to the cutter-bar. When 




There was a Cutter Bar at One Side of the 
Machine 



HAY MAKING 211 

they turn they make the bar go back and forth 
under those points. That's . what cuts off the 
grass. It's hke a row of scissors." 

The cutter bar stuck out at one side of the ma- 
chine. There was a big lever beside the seat. 
When this was pulled back it made the end of the 




Jim and Peggy Watched the Mower 

bar come up. Andy had it raised when he drove 
out to the field. 

Uncle David had an extra team of horses for the 
day. They were a pair of grays that Mr. Taylor 
wanted Uncle David to try. So Andy had them 
hitched to the mower, to see how they'd work. 

As soon as the dew had dried on the grass Andy 
started. He went first around the outside of a 



212 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



section of the field. Jim and Peggy stood near 
the fence and watched him go by. The cutter 
bar traveled along close to the ground, and the 
grass fell flat behind it. The machine made a loud 
noise, like "clack-clack-clack," — only much faster 
than you could say it. When it was at the farther 
side of the field Jim and Peggy could still hear it. 

Andy drove 
around and 
around, each 
time cutting a 
new strip. 
The sun was 
bright and hot. 
After a while 
Uncle David 
came out. 

"It's good 

hayin' weather, 

Andy," he said. 

"Looks as if 

we ought to get 

this in without 

any wetting," 

Andy replied. 

"We'll let that lie this afternoon," Uncle David 

explained to Jim. "To-morrow it ought to be 

ready to put in the barn." 

Uncle John and Aunt Emily were late for dinner. 




An Overhead Hay Carrier was at Work 



HAY MAKING 



213 



They had been out for a walk, they said, up to the 
top of the hill on the road toward Milford. Uncle 
David looked at Uncle John, and Uncle John 
smiled and nodded. Aunt Lucy looked at Aunt 
Emily, and she smiled and nodded, too. 

After dinner Andy hitched Milly to the surrey. 




A Horse Weni Ruund and Round 

"Uncle David and I are going to drive to Free- 
port on an errand," said Jim's father. "You and 
Horace can come along if you want to." 

They drove out, along the dusty, sunny road. 
At nearly every farm a mowing machine was at 
work. When they couldn't see one they could 
hear it, somewhere near by. 

At some places big loads of hay were being 



214 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

hauled to the barns. As they passed the Sturte- 
vant farm two men were unloading hay with an 
overhead carrier. They stopped and watched it 
work. 

The hay wagon was drawn up close to the front 
of the barn. In the peak of the front, overhead, a 
big door was open, and above this was a heavy 
beam. There was an iron track fastened below 
the beam. A pulley ran on this track. 

A rope ran down from the pulley to an iron fork, 
over the wagon. The man on the wagon jabbied 
this fork down into the hay in front of him. A 
horse that stood near the front of the barn walked 
slowly out, away from the barn, pulling a rope 
behind him. As he walked a great bunch of hay 
rose from the wagon until it was opposite the open 
door overhead, and then disappeared into the barn. 
In a moment the horse backed up, a man appeared 
at the door with the fork, empty, and it lowered 
down to the wagon again. 

"You'll see them baling hay at the next place, 
I think," said Uncle David. ''They have some 
of last year's crop that they're pressing and taking 
to town." 

But they couldn't see much when they got there, 
for the men were working inside the barn. Just 
outside the door there was a heavy wooden box, 
braced to the ground. A pole ran out from the 
top of the box, and a' horse was hitched to the end 



HAY MAKING 



215 



of this. He went round and round the box, draw- 
ing the pole after him. 

"He furnishes the power to run the baler," said 
Uncle John. "The machine inside presses the hay 
into tight, oblong bundles, and the men fasten it 




They Saw a Load of Baled Hay 



with wires. They do that so that they can ship it 
on trains." 

A little later Jim had a chance to see the hay 
made up into bales. They passed a load of it, 
before they reached Freeport. 

When they got into town Uncle David drove to a 
building on the main street. He and Uncle John 
went up a stairway, and stayed for a long time, 
while Jim and Horace waited in the surrey. 



2i6 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

It was supper time when they reached home. 
Aunt Emily came out on the porch as they drove 

"Did you — ?" she said to Uncle John. 

He nodded. 

"To-morrow afternoon," he said. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

THE FARM 

Next morning, after the sun was well up, Andy 
hitched Milly to the hay tedder, and drove up and 
down the field that they had mowed the day before. 




On TH1-: Back of thk Hay 1 hdder werk Six Iorks 

It was a funny machine to watch. On the back 
of it were six forks. As the tedder went along 
these forks dipped toward the ground, one after 
another, and then kicked out backward and up- 

217 



2i8 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

ward, tossing the hay into the air. They were 
like so many legs, each one kicking as fast as it 
could. 

"That's to turn the hay over, and make sure it 
dries out," explained Andy. 

Meanwhile Uncle David drove Dan and Ben to 




Andy was Driving the Rake 



the mowing machine, cutting a new piece, to be 
ready for another day. 

When dinner was over Uncle John put on his 
overalls, and the big straw hat. 

"I'm going to take a hand this afternoon," he 
announced. 

He and Uncle David went to the barn, with the 
children trailing along. They got out Dan and 



THE FARM 



219 



Ben, and hitched them to a big wagon that had an 
open rack on it instead of a wagon bed. Uncle 
David brought out two wide, wooden rakes from 
the tool room, and put them on the wagon. Then 
he got two pitchforks, and put them on. 

*'Jump on, children," he said. 

They all climbed on. Peggy and Jane sat on a 
board in the bottom of the rack. Jim and Horace 
perched on another board that ran along one side. 
The men stood 
at the front end, 
where there was 
a narrow frame 
sticking up, like 
a short ladder. 
Bumping and 
rattling they 
drove out of 
the barn. 

When they 
got to the field 
Andy was 
already there. 
He was driving 
Milly, hitched 

tn n rnk'P thnt -1"^ ^^^^ Peggy Sat on a Pilk of Hay 

had a wheel at each end, like a buggy wheel, 
and a seat in the middle for Andy to ride on. As 
Milly pulled the rake the hay kept gathering in 




220 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 

front of it. Every minute or so Andy would push 
on a lever, the tines of the rake would rise, and the 
hay would be left behind in a long heap. 

Andy drove and dumped the rake in such way 
that the heaps of hay were left joining end to end, 




Uncle David and Horace Loaded the Wagon 

in a long row. There were many rows, down the 
field. 

Pretty soon Andy turned and drove the other 
way, lengthwise of a row, dumping the rake every 
few feet, making the hay into piles. Uncle David 
started in with a hand-rake, gathering in the hay 
that had been missed. Uncle John took one of the 
pitchforks and helped to pile up the heaps. 

Uncle David called to Horace and had him drive 
the wagon close beside one of the piles. Jim and 



THE FARM 



221 



Peggy jumped down, and sat on one of the heaps, 
near by, to watch. Jane stood at the end of the 
wagon. Each of the men took a fork, and soon 
had the heap of hay on the wagon. Then Horace 
drove to the next pile, and so on, to the next one, 
and the next. 
Jane climbed 
down and joined 
Jim and Peggy. 

After a while 
the wagon was 
loaded so high 
that the men 
could hardly 
reach with the 
forks to put 
more hay on it. 

''Come on," 
shouted Uncle 
David. 

Jim and Peggy 
and Jane scram- 
bled up on top, 

with Uncle John helping them. Dan and Ben 
pulled the load slowly to the farmyard, up the 
slope, through the big doors, into the barn. Uncle 
David and Uncle John pitched the hay off into the 
mow. 

They brought in another load. Andy had 




Peggy 



222 JIM AND PEGGY AT MEADOWBROOK 



finished raking and had taken Milly to the barn. 

There were still a few piles left. Uncle David 

called Andy. 

"We won't try to bring in the rest to-night," he 

said, *'Just cap the cocks that are left, and we'll 

get it to-mor- 
row. 

A little later 
Uncle David 
brought Milly 
out of the barn 
and hitched her 
to the surrey. 
He and Uncle 
John got in and 
drove around to 
the porch. Aunt 
Lucy and Aunt 
Emily came out 
of the house and 
joined them. 
The children 
were down at 

the spring. Uncle David called. to them. 
*' We'll be back pretty soon," he said. 
''Hannah Wiggin will be over to get supper," 

added Aunt Lucy. 

The evening slipped quickly along. The cows 

came up through the meadow. Andy went into 




. THE FARM 223 

the barn to milk them. Crickets chirped in the 
grass. Katydids tuned up. Tag whined at the 
kitchen door for Hannah Wiggin to let him in. 

Just before dark the children heard the surrey 
drive up. They all ran to the porch. Uncle John 
and Aunt Emily had already got out. Aunt 
Emily looked at Uncle John and then at the 
children. She put her arm around Jim and Peggy. 

*'Tell them, John," she said. 

"Well," said Uncle John, "you know the farm 
just beyond the top of the hill, — the one where I 
lived when I was a boy ? We're coming there 
to live." 



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THE GOLDEN RULE SERIES OF READERS 
READING WITH A MORAL PURPOSE 

A Course of Study in Moral Instruction 

The Golden Rule Series provides the material for a complete and 
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